‘Pope did not meet Australian church abuse victims’

SYDNEY: Australian victims of child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church returned home on Sunday disappointed they did not meet Pope Francis and angry with the evidence a senior Vatican official gave to an inquiry investigating the abuse.

The Vatican said it did not grant a meeting with the group of about 15 abuse victims because they had not made their request through the proper channels while they were in Rome to observe Cardinal George Pell testify.

Pell, who is now the Vatican’s treasurer, became the highest ranking Vatican official to give testimony on the issue of systemic abuse within the church.

His evidence to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse on cases involving hundreds of children in Australia from the 1960s to the 1990s has taken on wider implications about the accountability of church leaders.

"The simple fact is it’s the pope’s loss," abuse survivor David Ridsdale told reporters at Melbourne airport regarding the lack of a meeting, according to the Australian Associated Press.

"He misses out. It’s not our loss." Ridsdale and the other survivors had travelled to Rome to observe Pell give evidence via videolink after a heart condition stopped the cardinal travelling to Sydney.