One of Pope Francis' top advisers acknowledged that
the Catholic Church "has made enormous mistakes" in allowing thousands
of children to be raped and molested by priests over centuries as he
testified at an extraordinary public hearing of an Australian
investigative commission just a few blocks from the Vatican.
Australian
Cardinal George Pell testified via videolink for four hours from Sunday
night to early Monday morning from a Rome hotel to the Royal Commission
sitting in Sydney. In the front row of the conference room were two
dozen Australian abuse survivors and their companions, who had traveled
across the globe to witness Pell's testimony, a significant show of
accountability in the church's long-running abuse saga.
