Revelation (2020): Season 1, Episode 3 - Goliath - full transcript

MAN: I never wished to come forward.

I chose to remain silent.

Never to tell a soul.

And I got through a good 40 years
of that.

SARAH FERGUSON:
This is where Bernie comes

when his boyhood memories of Ballarat
come back to torment him.

I feel free.

I haven't got a worry in the world.

I just feel that everything
that's going on is left behind

and you can just ride
into the future.

And I love the breeze coming
into my face and body and, you know,



I feel it's cleaning me
and cleansing me.

For many decades, he buried
the secrets of his childhood

as deep as he could.

I refused to think about it.

I knew it was there -
I've never forgotten it -

but you don't go there.

Bernie was hiding away his identity
as a victim of child sex abuse

and the name of the priest
he says assaulted him.

It wasn't until police contacted him

that he knew it was time
to reveal himself.

I never wanted to feel the shame,

but I wasn't gonna lie
to a police officer.

I was a pretty happy child,
you know what I mean.

I loved football and...
Kicking footies around.



Kicking footies around.
Just loved it.

If you read my file, I was a bright
kid and a, you know, playful kid.

Well mannered and...
Mm.

And do you remember what you thought
of priests at the time -

you know, what position
they held in your...?

Oh, very high.

Yeah. You'd always obey a priest.
Mm.

Oh, you'd obey a sister as well,

but, you know, you'd probably only
jump so high for a nun,

where a priest you'd be,
"How high do you want me to jump?"

Yeah. So, the natural Catholic order
where the priest is on a pedestal.

Yes. Yes, definitely. Yeah.
Mmm.

Do you remember the first time
you ever saw Father George Pell?

Yeah.

Yes, I do.

MAN: Cardinal, it's necessary
for you to be sworn.

Would you take the Bible in your
hand, please, and repeat after me -

"I swear by almighty God..."
I swear by almighty God...

"..that the evidence I shall give
in this royal commission..."

..that the evidence I shall
give in this royal commission...

"..shall be the truth..."
..shall be the truth...

"..the whole truth..."
..the whole truth...

"..and nothing but the truth."

..and nothing but the truth.

Thank you.

On April 7, 2020, Cardinal George
Pell was released from Barwon Prison.

The most senior Vatican official
ever jailed

for sex crimes against children
was set free

after the Australian High Court
quashed his convictions.

Pell was driven to the sanctuary of
a Carmelite monastery

in the suburbs of Melbourne.

George Pell had spent 405 days
in jail,

convicted of abusing two choirboys
in Melbourne Cathedral in the 1990s.

In the court's unanimous judgment
there was a significant possibility

that an innocent man
had been convicted.

The judges focused on the witnesses
who testified

that Pell had no opportunity
to commit the crimes.

This evidence should have "required
the jury, acting rationally,

"to have entertained a doubt."

In the eyes of the Cardinal's
unwavering supporters,

Pell is a modern martyr.

This was one of the greatest
miscarriages of justice

in Australian history.

A lot of people today should be
ashamed of their role

in the persecution,
the witch-hunting

and the jailing for 404 days
of an innocent man.

(NEWSREADERS SPEAK IN OWN LANGUAGE)

At the height of the pandemic,

Pell's acquittal still made
global headlines.

Locked down in the Vatican,

Pope Francis offered a prayer
for the unjustly accused.

A papal tweet went further, calling
for prayers for those who suffered

unjust sentences because
"someone had it in for them".

What was your reaction yesterday?
I was very pleased.

Pell himself said he bore no ill will
towards his accuser.

What was the experience
like in jail for you?

The High Court's emphatic decision
is bound to trigger

a searching debate about evidence
in historic sex abuse cases.

Cardinal Pell set out
some key principles

during his own evidence to
the royal commission.

My own position is that
you never disbelieve a complaint.

But then it has to be assessed,
has to see just whether it is valid

and true and plausible.

But the starting point must never be
that they are disbelieved,

that the allegations are taken very
seriously and examined.

The story you're about to see is
that of a new witness who claims

George Pell sexually abused him
when he was a young boy in the 1970s.

He is a compelling witness.

We've done our best to part the mists
of time to assess his story

and we believe it passes
the Cardinal's own test

of being valid and plausible.

It also has implications
that stretch all the way

to the Church's Citadel in Rome.

(SPEAKS ITALIAN)

(MAN SPEAKS ITALIAN)

Sometimes I freak out.
WOMAN: That's fine.

Just do a frontal face.
Pretend all this isn't here.

The opening morning of the Pope's
emergency summit

on the sexual abuse of children.

The battle for the hearts and minds
of the faithful has reached into

the marble halls and the forecourts
of the Vatican itself.

We are dealing with
a global emergency -

and I don't think the language
is too strong -

a global emergency that requires
a global response.

By now, that emergency was
threatening the very existence

of the American Catholic Church.

Because of what's happened
with the Church

of moving these
predatory priests around

and not dealing with it and not
being straightforward to the victims

that you're gonna see the Church
treated as a criminal organisation.

And what that means is
they can go in and -

it's just like a drug cartel -
they can seize your assets.

Thousands of dioceses
around the world,

headquarters of religious orders,

every one of them
has a mountain of these files.

Every one of them.

They have the files. And these
priests are all over the world.

So it's a matter of "When are they
going to be transparent?"

And you know what those files are?
Criminal evidence.

If we don't get ahead of this,

you're gonna see the physical
liquidation of the Church.

All the little people
that are in the pews

and built all this beauty in Rome

were all built on the shoulders
of the little parishioners.

That's all going to be wiped away
in one generation.

Whatever damage the child sex abuse
scandal has done to it,

the Catholic Church and the great
masses of the faithful

still orbit around this one man -

Pope Francis.

WOMAN: Santo Padre! Santo Padre!

Buongiorno!

But some senior Catholics
doubt his capacity to respond

to this greatest of all challenges.

I have no faith
that Francis is any different

from any of his
immediate predecessors.

Absolutely none.

And there was a huge expectation
that we would have a reforming pope.

Why?
Because we needed a reforming pope.

So, suddenly, this man
who was essentially a...

..you know, a tabula rasa,
a blank sheet of paper,

has thrust upon him
all these expectations.

But, honestly, in terms of
what has been accomplished,

he has been a journey
into not only disappointment,

but disillusionment,

because, of course, the Vatican,
it's run by a centralised clique

of celibate, ordained men
who live in a bunker.

It's an echo chamber.

MAN: Bernini's idea was to have
people walk through

the narrow, winding streets
of the Borgo, which is this area,

and then all of a sudden,
without seeing it beforehand,

walk into the piazza.

So the sense of theatrical drama,
as it were.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge is in Rome
as Australia's most senior Catholic.

He's been summoned here
along with bishops and archbishops

from all over the world.

This will just stop me
falling asleep.

Is it going to be worth the journey,
do you think?

I hope so.
For me and for you?

I can't say with certainty.

That's... Obviously, I hope so.

But you just don't know.

I mean, until the thing
actually happens, I don't know.

Caffe macchiato.
Grazie.

Caffe normale.
Questo macchiato.

Questo caffe normale.
Thank you. Yep.

Allora, benvenuta a Roma.
Thank you.

Cincin.
OK.

Coleridge believes the failure
of church leaders across the globe

has finally forced the Pope's hand.

But the papacy leaves it to the
local bishops to work it out

and only intervenes once it's clear

that the local bishops
are not working it out.

That's when the papacy intervenes.

And clearly, it's taken time for
the Pope to come to the judgment

that the hierarchy of the world
is failing at this point.

Mm-hm.

But on the eve of the summit,
while addressing a crowd of pilgrims,

the Pope's own judgement
came under scrutiny.

Angry victims' advocates in Rome
responded immediately.

To attack us and to say
that we are friends, relatives

and cousins of the devil...

I mean, OK.

I put it down to a kind
of Trumpian tantrum.

I cannot believe he would have meant

that anyone
who criticises the Church

in the area of child protection

is doing the work of the devil.

I think the Church has failed
lamentably, and therefore

we have to cop whatever
criticism comes our way.

When I look back now, I cringe.

I mean, I thought I knew
what I was dealing with.

I didn't have a clue.

Some of the things I said,
some of the things I did

were just appalling.

What was...what was appalling?

Well, a failure
to understand abuse at all.

I was certainly in denial
about what was actually happening.

I had no idea of the scale
of what would eventually emerge,

and I had no idea of the damage
that abuse did

to those who had been abused.

Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna

was the Pope's chief investigator
of sexual abuse by clerics

and the driving force
behind the summit.

The jurisdiction of the state
is essential.

We're dealing with egregious
misconduct, which are crimes.

Hello. Thank you so much for
inviting us to come here and see you.

As well as the state, Scicluna says

the Church must do
its own investigations.

He's overseen hundreds of cases
of clerical sex abuses.

Any cleric, whether deacon,
priest or bishop or cardinal,

who commits a sexual abuse of minor

is subject to a canonical
investigation and the process.

When I do investigations directly,

I consider the victims
as the first witnesses.

In some cases,
they are the only witness.

And then you have to investigate
their credibility,

which I think is a must.

But during the summit,
there was silence

about one of the Church's
greatest embarrassments -

the recent sex assault conviction

of one of the most powerful officials
in the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell.

MAN: Can you please state
your full name and address.

My name is George Pell

and I live at number 1
Piazza della Citta Leonina in Rome.

Thank you.

Now, Cardinal, today I'm intending
to interview you in relation

to the Victoria, Australia offences

of indecent assault upon a male

and indecent act in the
presence of a child under 16 years.

Victoria Police Detective Chris Reed

had travelled to Rome
in October 2016

to quiz Pell about
alleged offences against boys,

including in the sacristy
of Melbourne Cathedral.

But at that time, you've moved
your robes to one side

and exposed your penis.

Oh, stop it.

While still, at this stage,
standing with your back to the door.

What a load of...absolutely
disgraceful rubbish.

Completely false. Madness.

Cardinal Pell's rapid promotion
under Pope Francis

had mystified Vatican watchers.

MAN: People were astonished.

Pell had made his career,
you know, beating up on divorcees

and IVF and genetic engineering

and homosexuals,
homosexuals, homosexuals.

If we'd followed Christian ethics,
there'd be no AIDS epidemic.

If we'd stuck closer
to Christian ethics,

there wouldn't be nearly as many
marriage break-ups,

not as many suffering children.

The new pope seems a figure
who's completely unsympathetic

to that approach to Christianity.

To what Pell calls
the hard teachings of Christ.

But yet, he brought him
into the Vatican, to a new post,

essentially to be the treasurer
of the Vatican state.

And this made him hugely powerful.

MAN: Francis realised Pell
understood finance and he was tough.

He also realised that he had quite
serious problems financially

within the Vatican.

MARR: You can't make sense of Pell's
career unless you understand

that he's a very good administrator.

He's marvellous with money.

He moves effortlessly

through the most powerful
circles in Australia.

He was a confidant of politicians.

That was his world.

(CHUCKLING)

McALEESE: He did say
that he was coming to Rome

to change the culture in the Curia,

which was really dominated
by an Italian old boys' club.

Pell immediately began
treading on toes

as he discovered money hidden away

in the accounts
of different Vatican fiefdoms.

MARR: His task was,
for the first time ever, really,

to do a modern, proper,
highly professional audit

of the institutions of the Vatican.

Now, the mistake that he made
was that he took on

the Secretariat of State.

The secretary of state
is the equivalent

of the papal prime minister.

His name is Pietro Parolin.

MARR: The Secretary of State
for the Vatican

persuaded the Pope that the sort
of transparency that was coming

courtesy of PricewaterhouseCoopers
London and George Pell

and all of this new vigour
and curiosity

was not befitting a sovereign state.

So they just pull the pin.

That was the end of the operation,

and the operation ended

as the Victorian police
closed in on Pell.

Good morning to you all.

I want to say one or two
brief words about my situation.

I'm looking forward, finally,
to having my day in court.

I'm innocent of these charges.

They are false.

The whole idea of sexual abuse
is abhorrent to me.

So I can imagine that the more nasty
people within the Vatican

would have been pretty happy
that he is forced

to return to Australia.

MAN: Cardinal Pell, any comments?
WOMAN: Go to hell!

Any comments to make, Carinal Pell?
Go to hell! Go to hell!

When Pell finally did
have his day in court,

a jury rejected his denials.

In December 2018, Pell was convicted
of sexually abusing two choirboys

in Melbourne Cathedral in the 1990s.

Early morning on the day
of Cardinal Pell's sentencing.

Viv Waller is the lawyer for Pell's
accuser, known publicly as J.

And then, at some point
after the sentencing,

I'll give him a quick call,

make sure that he's still OK
with the central messages.

The law protects
her client's identity,

and he's chosen to remain anonymous.

He doesn't want to do
any interviews at all.

So just giving people
a copy of the statement.

So I'm just gonna read
through this one more time.

"My client is mindful
that the criminal process

"has not yet run its course
and that an appeal..."

My mission today really is
to look after our client.

He's ended up sort of inadvertently
in the centre of a story

of worldwide interest.

He's a very private person
and he doesn't really want

these events to define him,
and he's keen to protect his family

from being swept into the spotlight.

Thanks, Dylan.
Good luck today.

I shall send you a message.
Thank you.

MAN: Wake up.
Admit what you've done.

You were the Archbishop
of St Patrick's Cathedral, no less,

and you sexually abused
two choirboys

within that cathedral.

This connection and the depth
of the breaches and abuses

is self-evident.

I sentence you to a total effective
sentence of six years' imprisonment.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Is everybody ready?

It was left to Viv Waller to give
voice to the anonymous witness,

her client J.

"It is hard for me to allow myself
to feel the gravity of this moment.

"Regardless of the outcome
of the appeal

"a few facts will always remain.

"I gave evidence for several days.

"I was cross-examined
by Pell's defence counsel.

"Pell chose not to give evidence.

"The jury did not hear from him.

"He did not allow himself
to be cross-examined."

There is an appeal on foot -
we cannot comment.

How will he fare in custody?

Cardinal Pell would spend
more than 12 months in jail

before his conviction was overturned.

His ordeal before the courts
could have been longer -

a planned second trial was abandoned
as unlikely to succeed.

Our story is about a key witness
in that trial.

What happened to Bernie tells us
a great deal about the pressure

on those who come forward
to talk about their abuse.

For Bernie,
that pressure began in March 2016

when he responded to a note
that arrived in the mail -

a request he contact Victoria Police.

BERNIE: So I rang.

And the first question, he said,
"Are you Bernard...?"

And I said, "Yes."

Second question was...

.."Did you ever live in Ballarat?"

The mind started ticking
a little bit then.

"Yes."

And the third question just
rocked my world, destroyed me.

"Do you know a Father George Pell/
Cardinal George Pell?"

And I paused and I paused
and I paused...

My heart sunk
to the bottom of the earth.

Over decades, Bernie had watched
George Pell's rise to power.

..through the gospel
and the Eucharist...

I would hear "Pell's become Bishop,"
"Pell's become Archbishop".

"Pell's become a cardinal."

In for a penny, in for a pound?

Good.

As he climbed his ladder,

his stupid bloody papal
greasy ladder that he was climbing,

it confirmed to me more and more
that I was never to come forward.

Who's going to believe
a little boy from a home

against that conglomerate, mate?

You know,
against that bloody goliath?

Detective Chris Reed
from Task Force SANO

arrived at the house
within 48 hours of Bernie's call.

Chris knocked on that door
and I just burst out crying.

And he calmed me down.

He calmed me down.

He said "It's OK, it's OK.
I'm...I'm with you."

It took five and a half hours
to do the statement.

I had to draw it all back
from my deep subconscious.

You know, way back.

And that was the first time
in 40 years.

I gave the statement.

I gave the statement, and
I sort of didn't hear from Chris

for about another, I don't know...

Time frames are...whatever.

It could have been
three to six months.

I used to love Ballarat.
I really did.

Does it feel like home to you?

Not now.

Not now. Very eerie place for me.

That's where Pell lived, isn't it?

I know that he did live there
for a little while.

I never went to his house.

He always came to me.

Bernie and I have come back to the
home town he shared with George Pell.

I think we're starting
to get a little bit closer.

Bernie was raised from infancy

at the Sisters of Nazareth
Boys' Home in Ballarat.

This is it?
This is it.

This is it. This is your boyhood.
Yep, this was my home.

This was my home
for nearly 15 or 16 years.

Wow. It's kind of beautiful.

Yeah. It doesn't look like
it's changed too much.

So when you're here,
who are the adults in your life?

The nuns.
It's just women.

The nuns. Yes, the nuns. The women.

So there's no men...
there's no significant men around?

No. No. There was no significant
men at all in my life.

Did you feel sorry for yourself?

Yeah, I did. I felt a bit lonely.

I thought, you know,
"Does anybody love me?"

(LAUGHS)

Bernie was born at
Melbourne Women's Hospital in 1966.

My mother left me at the hospital.

She gave birth to me
and she left me at the hospital

and apparently said to the nurses
or whoever there, midwives,

that, "I'll come back
and collect Bernard."

No, never to collect Bernard.

Bernie's wardship file
from the state government of Victoria

records his removal to the
Catholic boys' home aged six months.

Were you happy here?
Loved it.

Yeah, I was pretty happy here.
You know, that was my home.

You know, and this is where
I felt most comfortable in my life,

because I knew all the kids
in the home, you know,

and I knew the routine and...

What was the routine like?
Very structured routine.

Mm.
You know what I mean?

Like, you'd get up at 7:00,
you're dressed by 7:15.

And how religious was it?

Was it a very...?
Oh, very religious.

Yeah, OK.
Very, very religious.

You'd say grace before meals.

Mm-hm.
Grace after meals.

We'd have a novena
every Wednesday night.

Once a month we'd do
the Stations of the Cross,

Church on Sundays.

MAN: Nazareth was surrounded
by Catholicism

on the walls and the carpets
and in the bedrooms.

You had paintings in the bedrooms.

You had nuns walking around with
little signet...little crosses

swinging over your head as they're
looking at you, and you're like...

Yeah.

It was...it was
pretty much God's home.

We searched the country

for men who'd grown up
in the home with Bernie.

A few of them
were still living in Ballarat.

It was pretty strict, pretty rigid.

Yeah.

But it wasn't too bad.
Like, it wasn't all bad.

We did have a bit of fun there.

MAN: Church was just in your face,
you know, and...

..praying all the time
when you get up, till nine.

Before breakfast, lunch, tea.

Even when you go swimming.

It just drove you nuts.

There was no love.

The only love that would be there
would be from one another.

Not all the nuns were bad,

but there were a lot of, um...

..devils wearing blue skirts.

Peter Clarke is one of those men
who's kept a connection to Ballarat

despite his experiences
at Nazareth House.

He was one of five children removed
from his family in the 1960s.

I don't think that the state
had prepared the nuns

how to deal with children
who were, um...

..had issues -
emotional, psychological.

And I thought later that these women
just did the best they possibly can

by just dealing with kids
in a physical manner.

They were ill-equipped
for the job, you think?

Oh, absolutely.

He and Bernie say
they haven't seen each other

since they were at Nazareth House.

Yeah, that's Bernard, yeah.

Scruffy-looking fella.

And that was Sister Victoire.

She's just one of the many nuns
that were at Nazareth.

That's in the TV room there.

You have clear memories of Bernard?
I do. I do. Absolutely, I do.

Do you remember Bernard?

PHILLIP CLARKE: Yeah.

Just knocked around together,
me and a few of the others.

Just, yeah, a circle of good mates.

I still remember his birthday.

Oh, I never knew my birthday,
and I remember his birthday,

so I used to have my birthday
the same day.

You just decided to have it that day?
Yeah.

AZZOPARDI: So, I used to
muck around with him a bit

'cause we went to the same school.

I got on pretty good with him.
Yeah, I had no worries with Bernard.

After being separated
from her brothers,

Justine was moved into a dorm
for girls at Nazareth House.

Oh, gosh.

Bernard... (CHUCKLES)

Bernard was my boyfriend.

We were around 12.

Yeah. There was a room.

And us older girls,

we had a few boyfriends,
so the boys used to come over.

And there was a nun in there,
so that we were supervised.

He was a nice-looking boy.

Were the nuns strict?

BERNIE: Oh, very strict.

Their weapon of choice was the cane

if you did step out of line.

PHILLIP: Certain nuns were bastards,

and that's it -
that's the only way to put it.

If you were talking at night
in the dormitories,

get caught, they'd cane you
across the legs, the fingers.

Yeah.

The Sisters of Nazareth Boys' Home

was an integral part
of the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat

with a chaplain and regular visits
from priests and bishops.

It was here that Bernie says
he first met George Pell.

BERNIE: At the boys' home,
there's a driveway.

It sort of curves and goes around.

So it's like an oval shape.

And I was out there, and I saw a
big man walking with Sister Victoria

down towards the side

and I looked at him

and I was actually in awe
of that man.

And Sister Victoria said,
"This is Father Pell."

And I remember
that he put his hand out

and it just swallowed
my little...little hand -

I don't know whether
I was seven or eight, nine.

I'm not sure.

Pell was then a young curate
in the Ballarat diocese.

Bernie says he came to think of him
as a father-figure.

I did feel like a favourite of his.

I did talk...I talked with him for
10 minutes, 20 minutes at a time

about football,
you know what I mean?

And I would talk about Carlton
and he would talk about Richmond.

Mm.

So I actually did get a little bit
excited when I saw Father....

"Father Pell! Father Pell!"

Yeah.

I started seeing him
around the home, you know?

And, like, he wouldn't stay there
for hours and hours on end.

It'd be sort of like
half an hour or an hour...gone.

(WATER RUNNING IN SHOWERS)

Bernie says Father Pell
would sometimes be in the home

at shower time.

We'd shower with our underpants on.

He'd just stand there and sort of
stare at you and watch you, and...

I used to shut the door,
you know what I mean?

But the way I feel that he worked it
is that he's like,

"Look, it's only us guys.
Open the door."

And then it progressed where, like,
"Take your underpants off."

You know, "It's OK." And then
he'd watch you wash yourself.

So I'm washing myself.

And he came into my cubicle
and he says, uh,

"I don't think you're washing
yourself properly, Bernard."

"Why's that, Father?"

"You need to do this,"
and lathered his hands

and before I know it,
he's soaping my genitals

and, you know, soaping me all over.

"You need to wash in there and
wash down in there and wash..."

You know, and rubbing his hand
up my butt crack,

"and wash there properly,"
and all this sort of stuff.

And I still didn't think
anything wrong of it.

I thought he was actually trying
to show me how to wash my...

Because the Sisters of Nazareth

had never shown me
how to wash myself properly.

One instance I'll never forget
till the day I die was, uh...

..he, uh...

..he was lathering me up, and...

..he pulled my foreskin
over my...head of my penis

and that hurt.

That really hurt.

I've never experienced
such pain in my life.

It really hurt me.

And he said, "It's normal. It won't
hurt as much as time goes on.

"You need to do that
to clean in there properly,"

and all of this sort of stuff.

Did you think it was strange,
or just painful?

I didn't think it was strange.

Like I said, it was still in my
head that he's trying to help me.

I looked up to the man.

George Pell has denied
ever visiting Nazareth House,

except when the home
was closing in 1980.

We asked the Sisters of Nazareth
what records they kept

of priests visiting the home.

Their answers suggested
that those records were very limited.

But the regional superior,
Sister Margaret O'Keefe, told us

that an investigation
had ruled out the possibility

of George Pell ever being here.

But she refused to say
what that investigation was based on.

Some of the Nazareth House boys

don't remember Father Pell
at the home,

but we found five, apart from Bernie,

and a staff member

who recall Pell being there.

Did George Pell
ever come to the home?

Yeah.
You're sure about that?

Yeah, I'm positive about that, yeah.

Yeah, he was a big bloke
actually, George Pell.

He'd be a good 6'2", I suppose.
Black hair.

A bit of a pointy nose.

Carried a bit of weight.

Like, he wasn't a small bloke.

Two of the men and a staff member
specifically remember George Pell

being at the outdoor pool
at the home.

Pell denies it.

PETER: The first time I ever saw
a priest in the pool

was actually George Pell,
just George.

I said, "Who's that?"
"Oh, that's George."

And he was just
throwing these kids in the air,

and I thought,
"That's just really cool."

And so, what do you do?
There's an adult in the pool.

Great! Let's go climb him.

And that's where
I jumped in the pool

with every other kid in there,
you know?

Peter Clarke's allegations
about what happened in the pool

were investigated by police
but dropped before trial,

deemed too hard to prove.

To what I know now as being
child abuse or sexual abuse,

I didn't look at it back then.

All I knew was it just fucking hurt
my ringhole, and it wasn't nice.

And I just climbed on him.

But he has... He's very good.

What he'd do,
if you were getting too high up,

his little finger would...

..in through the anus.

It was just a simple,
subtle finger through the anus,

but pushing your...
Your bathers, your togs.

We called them togs.

And inserting his finger
through my togs, into my anus.

"Ouch." Got me off him.

Hurt.

What did I do?

Climb back up.

"Ouch."

That was it.

You didn't look at it...

As a child, I never
looked at it like that.

You know, we're just kids.
We're just climbing.

Ballarat's Catholicism,
for all its terrible flaws,

was deep enough to embrace both

abandoned children
like Bernie and his mates

and a future prince of the Church.

This was where George Pell's rise

to the commanding heights
of the Vatican began.

MARR: George Pell is,
at least at the start,

a completely Irish Catholic.

His mother was a Burke.

His father was a Protestant.

His father was a rogue.

He ran a pub with an
SP bookie service in it as well.

Fell in with a Catholic woman,
they married,

and she, of course, determined
how the kids were brought up.

Ballarat's St Patrick's College
was a natural destination

for the young George Pell.

MAN: He was certainly seen as one
of the leading lights in the school.

He was a very good footballer.

He was rough.

He didn't take prisoners.

MARR: He plays football.
He rows. He sings in The Mikado.

His Pooh-Bah in The Mikado

is celebrated still
by those who saw it.

But when he was about 15,

he had a kind of intensification
of his faith.

It's very hard
for people today to understand

what it was like in
a Catholic school in the 1950s.

I do, because I was there.

FILM NARRATOR:
This secular instruction

is considered of little value

unless the pupils are well grounded

in the practice
of the Catholic faith.

Constantly, you were bombarded
with invitations

to join the priesthood.

It is from amongst boys like these
that will come future vocations.

Will it be this one?

Or that one?

Or perhaps it is you.

This was such a totalised culture.

I mean, it's very hard today
to understand

how total that Catholic culture was.

MARR: When Pell went into
the seminary in the late 1950s,

the seminary was bursting with
young men training to be priests.

The Church was at its high tide.

And he spent a whole career...

..watching that tide go out.

(BELL TOLLS)

During his three years
as a trainee priest

at the Corpus Christi Seminary
in Werribee,

some recall
Pell's healthy high spirits

and others his reputation
as an overbearing bully.

COLLINS: Pell was a dominant figure,
something of a standover merchant.

That wasn't unusual in the seminary,
let me tell you,

because when you've got
this all-male community,

the alpha males come out
pretty quickly.

Identified in the seminary
as a future Church leader,

George Pell was sent to study
in the Vatican.

So he sailed off to the college
of Propaganda Fide in Rome.

He was part of the grand project
to educate an elite of priests

from the far-flung reaches
of the Church's global empire.

A brash provincial given his first
taste of the Vatican's grandeur.

At ordination in St Peter's Basilica,

George Pell was elevated
above ordinary mortals.

Making you, in the old understanding
of the priesthood, a special man,

a man who is, if you like,
above the laity,

a man who, in the belief
of the time, held God in his hands.

In this heightened state,
and brimming with ambition,

the prince of the Church was sent
to Oxford to complete his education.

I mean, all of this, I think,

helps you to understand
not just George Pell,

but to understand, in a way,
the background to sexual abuse.

It is men growing up
in a totally artificial,

hierarchical, structured society.

We came out of it,
still adolescents.

We had the maturation
of adolescents.

We had the sexual development
of adolescents.

Our psychological development
was very retarded.

Pell's time as a trainee priest
was not without blemish.

In the early '60s,
he took a break from the seminary

for a holiday on Phillip Island,

supervising young altar boys
camping on the island.

More than four decades later,
he would face his first investigation

of sexual abuse, accused of
groping one of the boys in a tent

and while swimming.

Ladies and gentlemen,

certain allegations have been made
about my conduct

when I was a seminarian
over 40 years ago.

These allegations against me
are lies

and I deny them utterly and totally.

In 2002, Archbishop Pell
voluntarily stood down

for an inquiry run by the Church.

The inquiry will be conducted,
I believe,

by a retired Victorian
Supreme Court judge.

I will, of course, cooperate
with this independent inquiry

in every way possible,
openly, frankly, unreservedly.

MAN: Ultimately,
Justice Southall concluded

that although there wasn't
enough evidence in his standard

to suggest that the offences
had been proved,

he found the victim to be credible

and in a sense, he found
a rather unsatisfactory finding

that both the victim
and Cardinal Pell's defences

were, in a sense,
equally believable.

It was the first of many
sexual allegations against Pell

in and around water -
shower rooms, pools or the ocean.

None of them has been
successfully prosecuted.

During winter, the routine
for the boys at the home

included regular trips to the heated
indoor pool at the YMCA in Ballarat.

The boys were often supervised
by Father Pell.

BERNIE: We'd grab a floatie or a
kickboard or something like that

and us kids would muck around a bit.

Father Pell would
get in the pool as well

and he used to wear...

..uh, like, blue...
dark blue Speedos.

PHILLIP: Father George,
we'd call him.

And I remember the goggles
he used to wear,

the...small little ones
with the elastic.

I'd never seen them before that.

And he'd just hang laps and
we'd wait up the end of the pool

and just jump on him.

Used to call him
a sea monster and...

He was just so big,
we'd ride on his back.

MAN: The kids from the home
were all about our age.

Around 10, 12, I suspect.

The guy that used to bring them in
was... His name was George. We...

He was a man mountain and he
used to jump in the pool with us

and just basically wrestle and
we'd be fighting each other and...

I have vivid memories of him
actually picking us up

and just throwing us like spears -
like, he was that big and strong.

Brett O'Neill was a regular
at the YMCA for swim training.

He says he never saw George Pell
doing anything untoward to children

in or out of the pool.

No.

If something had have been a bit
out of whack with George,

I think our parents
would have got involved.

If they had thought
there was something not right,

they would have been
in the change rooms.

But one of the parents did claim

to witness inappropriate behaviour
by Pell.

Sue van Gerrevink remembers
arriving at the pool

where her daughter was doing
swim training.

As I walked in,
I walked up to my husband

and he drew my attention and said,
"Who's that dodgy guy?"

And I said, "Oh, that's George Pell.
Why is he dodgy?"

And he said, "Oh, he's picking
the boys up by their buttocks

"and throwing them."

And he said,
"That is NOT what you do."

What is it that bothered him
about what he saw?

Just the fact that his hands
were underneath the boy's bottoms

and being an
ex-swimming teacher himself

and having gone through courses,

you do not touch children's bottoms.

What sort of a man was your husband?

He's very ethical,
very straight-down-the-line

and obviously it bothered him.

And it continued to bother him
all through the rest of his life.

Her husband died before the
investigation of George Pell began

but Sue van Gerrevink gave a sworn
statement to the SANO Task Force.

Did you and your husband...

..did you have any discussion about
whether you should do something?

No. No. Unfortunately not.

Could you have done something?

It'd be pretty hard to do it
in a Ballarat community.

Why is that?

Because of the Catholic nature
of the community.

He would be believed

and I think, in hindsight,
we would have pilloried.

George Pell doesn't deny
swimming at the YMCA

but denies abusing boys there.

The boys from the home say
they warned each other

about Father Pell in the pool.

He'd take off back down there,

we'd say, "Watch your nuts.
Watch your nuts."

So the boys said
he was touching their nuts?

Uh, I'd say it.

Um...

..Bernard also.

Yeah, "Watch your nuts.
Watch your nuts."

As the swimming lessons went on
and, uh, like, uh...

Then he'd start...
"Do you wanna play a game,
Bernard?"

And I said, "Yes, please."

And he goes,
"Oh, I've got 20 cents here.

"Do you wanna play hide-and-seek
with a 20-cent piece?"

"Yes. Yes, Father."

And then he'd start putting it
down his bathers

and your hand would get
pushed down there

and you're groping him
and fondling him and, you know...

But I'm not thinking that
I'm groping or fondling him -

my whole mindset was
to try and find the 20 cents.

You know what I mean?

And meanwhile, I've given him
a good couple of minute fondle

and, "Oh, found it!"

When Bernie gave his statements
to police, he says he had no idea

that other boys had made
similar claims to police

about Pell's behaviour
in other Ballarat swimming pools.

After I'd given the statement,
a month later or something,

ABC came up with...

..Louise Milligan...
Mm-hm.

..came up with a thing about
a couple of boys have come forward

about being molested
in the swimming pool.

And I looked at my partner
and I went, "Surprise, surprise."

You know, his hand
touching our genitals and stuff

on the outside of your bathers
or your shorts.

And then that slowly became...

..hand down the front of the pants

or your bathers
or whatever you call them.

Under the water?
Under the water.

While swimming at the YMCA one day,
Bernie asked to get out of the pool.

I sort of was sitting on the toilet
for probably a good 10 minutes.

Father Pell actually came in.

And, um, he said...
I heard in a deeper voice,

"Are you OK in there,
young Bernard?"

I said, "Yes, Father.
I just can't poo."

And, uh, Father Pell came in,

into the toilet cubicle,

and said something along the lines,

"Well, I'm going to help you."

So got me off the toilet,

turned me around and said,

"Just relax and I'll help you poo."

And he stuck his finger up my anus.

And that hurt.

That really hurt.

He sort of come across
that it was normal

and, "You should be right now.
You're just a little bit tight."

And, oh, I was like, "That's weird."

Mm.
"That is weird.

"But whatever. Father Pell knows.

"He must...
He knows how to help me."

Decades later, Victoria Police
contacted Bernie and Peter Clarke

about their experiences with Pell.

They brought this to me.

I didn't chase them. I ignored them.

They came to me with this

and I didn't want to have no part
of this fucking thing.

One of the difficult things
when the police came to you

is that you're being asked
to think about and remember things

that happened a very long time ago.

How is your memory?

How much do you remember?
Um...

I remember a fair bit.
I really do.

But the thing in life, you know,

I've always thought
that you remember

the really, really good things
in your childhood

and you remember
the really, really bad things.

When the police began
their investigation

and you're being asked
to try and date and time

and put things in the right order
and get the story straight,

how hard was that for you?

Oh, very, very hard. Very hard.

And like I said, to, uh, SANO...

..the detective, I said, um,

"I know the acts that happened."
Mm.

"Me being able to put them in a
time frame is very, very difficult

"because of the time frame,
40 years,

"but, you know,
I will never forget the acts

"because they were
really, really bad for me."

Father Eric Bryant
is on his way to early mass

at the hamlet of Landsborough
on the edge of his parish.

Part of the sprawling diocese
of Ballarat,

it covers 41 parishes.

BRYANT: I'll turn
some lights on up here.

Father Bryant is a lifelong friend
of George Pell.

I'm gonna get vested down the back.

The catastrophe of child sex abuse

has fundamentally changed
how he deals with his parishioners

and their children.

Here we go.

Well done.

And why do you dress out here?

Mainly because if we have altar
servers, they dress in the sacristy

and I don't want to be
in the sacristy

when there's children present.

Bryant never believed
his old friend was a child abuser.

I've got my own beliefs and, uh...

What are they?
Well, my beliefs are

I think George has been set up.
I really do.

You just said "set up" -
what do you mean?

Uh...

I believe that...

No, I believe...

I've got a feeling in my heart
that...

..that they were looking to grab
a tall poppy from the Church

in Australia.
Who's they?

Certain authorities,
whether they be, uh...

..whether they be police...

I-I don't know. You know, I'm not...

Uh, I'm not on the inner circle
of any of that stuff,

but it's just a feeling I've got,

knowing George and how people
are baying for his blood.

In the 1970s, Father Eric Bryant
and Father George Pell

were young priests
in the Ballarat diocese,

reliant on the patronage
of their bishop, Ronald Mulkearns.

MARR: Mulkearns was
one of George Pell's patrons.

You are advancing your career
through a monarchy,

you need patrons.

At his consecration
as Ballarat's bishop-in-waiting,

Ronald Mulkearns was blessed
with a kiss

from the now disgraced
Bishop O'Collins.

With that fateful kiss,
the new bishop inherited a diocese

in which child sexual abuse
by fellow priests was running rampant

and a culture
in which those offending priests

were protected and sheltered
by the Church.

COLLINS: A lot of bishops, they've
grown up in this world of secrecy.

And this world of secrecy
means that, you know,

there are things to be said and
things that are kept under covers.

BRYANT: And you protect your priests
at all costs.

That's...that's where we were
in those days.

Mulkearns was sitting on top
of a fetid swamp of crime and abuse.

George Pell has long been dogged
by questions about what he knew

about the extent of child abuse
by fellow priests and brothers.

When Pell moved into Ballarat,

he shared the presbytery
of St Alipius.

Just along the way is the little
St Alipius Primary School.

Now, that primary school was,

at the time Pell was living
in the presbytery,

probably the most dangerous place
in Australia for a child to be.

WALLER: By the early '70s, every
male person working at St Alipius

was a sex offender.

Some of the Christian Brothers'
most notorious sex offenders

have come through that school.

Nobody saw anything.

Never saw a thing.

And it just went on and on and on.

And the death count amongst
those kids is terrible.

There are school photographs
that you can see

with the crosses through the faces
of the ones who've died.

The ones whose cars inexplicably
one night drove into a tree.

The carnage was terrible,
and it just went on and on and on.

Father Gerald Ridsdale
was the school chaplain

at St Alipius Primary School.

MAN: Yes, Ms Furness?

Your Honour, I call Gerald
Ridsdale.

He gave his evidence to the
royal commission from prison.

Now, by this stage,
in Ballarat East, in the early
'70s,

you'd established a pattern in
relation to offending, hadn't you?

By then, I would have, yes.

George Pell lived at the presbytery
while you were there,

didn't he, Mr Ridsdale?

I've been told that,

but I can't remember
actually being there with George.

Of all the monsters who spawned
in Bishop Mulkearns's fetid swamp,

the priest who cohabited here
for a year at St Alipius presbytery

with a young Father George Pell

was the worst.

Father Gerald Ridsdale, who
had easy access to boys and girls,

raped an astonishing number
of children.

I don't think he ever could be
let out of prison,

because I don't think he'd...

..no, I don't think
he would have stopped.

Shirley is Gerald Ridsdale's sister.

She's been blind
for more than a decade.

The Ridsdales were a large,
devout Catholic family in Ballarat,

who also knew the Pells.

I knew them because
Mum and Dad knew them.

Mm. And what was George like?
George Pell?

Arrogant.

Um...

Sneaky.

I think arrogant was the main thing.

He always was very arrogant,

um, looked down on other people.

Shirley loved the church
she grew up in.

I loved going to mass.

I loved the way the Catholic Church
seemed to encompass us

and keep us safe.

I always felt safe.

All that ended when her revered
elder brother came to her house

on the eve of his first arrest.

He wouldn't come in and face me.

He'd have to sit in the car
and wait for me to go out there.

I got into the back seat of the car.

And...

..he just said...he just told me
straight out what had happened,

why he was in trouble
with the police.

I think he said,

"I've been charged with
sexual offences against children."

And that's when I said, "How many?"

And I thought he'd say
four to five children.

And he said, "Hundreds."
Hmm!

And I...even now, I can feel
that same dropping of my stomach.

When Ridsdale went to court that year

to plead guilty
to sexually abusing nine boys,

it was George Pell
who accompanied him.

The lawyer said, "Well, you know,

"would you walk down
to the court with him?"

As... Now, I said yes.

I said to him,

"Well, I'm not going to say
that he hasn't done these things.

"All I would be prepared to say

"is that, as well as that damage,
he's done some...some good things."

Pell's act of solidarity,
captured by alert cameramen,

would bind the two men forever
in news archives.

Bishop Mulkearns protected Ridsdale
for two decades,

moving him out of parishes
when he was caught abusing children.

The moves were raised with
an advisory committee of priests

known as the College of Consultors.

Father William Melican is the only
one of the Consultors to accept

he knew those moves were because
Ridsdale was abusing children.

I would have known what it meant
without knowing the specifics of it,

but I wasn't interested in it.

And also, "It's none of my
business," I probably said.

"That's between him and the Bishop."

If the Bishop thinks
it's important enough

to bring it up at the meeting,

let the Bishop
sort it out with him.

In those days, abusing children

wasn't the desperate thing
that it is now.

But you still accept what you said
in the royal commission, which is,

"By the middle of the '70s,
the Consultors knew

"that we were talking about
transgressions against children"?

It wasn't a big deal.

It's now a big deal.

In 1981, Mulkearns sent
Gerald Ridsdale

to the small town of Mortlake -

Ridsdale's 11th move in 20 years.

By then, George Pell had been
on the College of Consultors

for four years,

although he was absent
for the meeting

that sent Ridsdale to Mortlake.

FURNESS: Your account
of what happened at Mortlake

is in front of you.

Have you got page 39?

Yes. "I got out of control again.

"I went haywire there.

"Altar boys, mainly.

"They came over to the presbytery."

So, that's the actual church?
MAN: Yeah.

Is that what it looked like then?
Yep. Yep.

I actually want the church
demolished,

because it's a crime scene.

And it's not got
no good memories for me,

so that would be my first thing.

Steve Blacker was a pupil at
Mortlake's Catholic primary school,

St Colman's.

Steve was eight when Gerald Ridsdale
arrived at his school,

cloaked in his false charm.

Everyone was besotted by him.

You know, he encouraged people
to call him Fozzie Bear

and all this type of stuff.

The presbytery was like open house.

You could go there
anytime you wanted.

He had an Atari arcade game.

Um, he had a pool table.

WALLER: He was a particularly
clever offender.

He was good-natured,
jolly, affectionate,

really took an interest in kids.

It just makes my blood run cold

how charming he was with children.

In 1982, young Steve,
then an altar boy,

fell into Ridsdale's trap

when he left his jumper behind
at the presbytery.

He had the altar boy
fish-and-chip night, or pie night,

and we'd, you know,
been playing pool or whatever.

(SCHOOL BELL RINGS)

The next day, I saw Father Gerry
in the yard at recess

and I just said,

"Look, I think I've left my jumper
at the presbytery last night.

"Can I come over and get it?"

And he said, "Oh, yeah. No worries."

I went over to the presbytery

and he said it wasn't there.

And he thought we must have left it
in the church or in the sacristy.

So he sent me on
a bit of a wild-goose chase.

And I ended up
in the confessional, and...

..yeah, that's where it happened.

The confessional was a room
off next to the sacristy.

We're hunting around,
trying to find the jumper.

And, you know, I knew
I didn't leave it there,

but he'd obviously worked out

how he was gonna do
whatever he was gonna do.

Corner you.
Yeah.

Can you tell me what he did?
(SUCKS AIR)

Yeah. He anally raped me.

Yeah.

Nine?
Yeah.

How was he even able to do that?

I mean, you were nine.

(SIGHS HEAVILY) Dunno.

Yeah, I mean, he's just... Yeah.

I rode my bike home
to Mum and Dad's.

They were both at work,

so I knew I was right
for a bit of time

until Mum came home for lunch.

My backside was bleeding
when I got home, you know?

And you're just not sure what's...

..what's...what's happened.

So I...

Yeah, I just had a shower

and just tried to get clean,

which you can't do.

Most people in that situation
would understand that.

And I remember, you know,
obviously...um...

..undies were, yeah...

..just...yeah,
just covered in stuff.

And, um...

..we had a wood fire - it used to
just poke along during the day.

And then I just burnt my...
burnt my jocks.

And just...you know, I can still...

..see that image of them
burning in the fire.

And I suppose I tried
to convince myself that...

..by burning them,
it never happened, you know.

RIDSDALE: "It was no secret
around what I eventually...

"..about me and my behaviour.

"There was talk
all around the place...

"..amongst the children,

"and one lot of parents came to me."

On 14 September 1982,

that "open secret" was on the agenda

of the Ballarat
College of Consultors,

led by Bishop Mulkearns.

This time, George Pell
was present at the meeting.

Cardinal Pell was there, wasn't he?

Father Pell at that stage -
he was second junior to me, yeah.

It was my first Consultors meeting.

Bishop Mulkearns came in
and we had the prayer,

and then he just made the statement

that there'd been problem with
homosexuality with Gerald Ridsdale,

and he had the need
to move him from his parish.

And I think, at that stage,
he sent him to Sydney,

to get him out of parishes,

thinking that
that'd make people safe.

But, of course, it didn't.

But did you understand

that the problem was with children?

No. At that stage...
I did not know at that stage, no.

I think the royal commission
believes

that it was understood in the
Consultors meeting at that time.

Well, it certainly wasn't by me.

The royal commission found
that Mulkearns told the Consultors

Ridsdale was being moved

because of complaints he'd
sexually abused children,

concluding,
"A contrary position is not tenable."

I think everybody sat there
in stunned silence for a while

and then they just went on
with the normal meeting.

MARR: With Pell, the really
interesting point always...

..is him not asking questions.

Pell's someone who got a very,
very long way in the Church

by knowing exactly
what's going on around him,

by being in the know.

I don't recall that.

You don't recall that he did that?

No, I don't remember that.

I just don't recall what was known.

MAN: You don't recall?

No.

By the time he was called to account
at the royal commission in 2016,

Bishop Mulkearns would offer
no defence but his failing memory.

Now, it's the case,
isn't it, Bishop,

that your time as Bishop of Ballarat
was characterised

by offending paedophiles
coming to your attention

and you effectively covering up -
is that right?

Well, it's certainly...

..not been my intention.

But I can only say

that I'm, uh, terribly sorry

for the fact
that I didn't act differently.

Mulkearns died weeks later.

George Pell would argue
time and again

that Mulkearns
had kept him in the dark.

Cardinal, as I understand
your evidence,

the consequence is, you say,
the Bishop deceived you -

is that right?

Unfortunately correct.

It's hard to imagine
a greater deception, isn't it?

Well, it probably would be possible
to imagine a greater deception,

but it's a gross deception.

Well, if someone was deeply cynical,

they might think it's convenient
to blame the dead guy.

To sheet the blame home
to Mulkearns, one out -

that's what the Church
wants everyone to do.

It doesn't work like that,
and it's much bigger than that.

What's the point of having
a Consultors meeting

if it's just one bloke
driving the bus?

And they're happy...

..the Church has always been happy
to blame the dead or almost dead,

because, you know,
"Let's throw them under the bus."

George Pell threw Mulkearns
under the bus.

You know? "Oh, I had
nothing to do with it."

There's no doubt,
within the Ballarat diocese,

there's been a cover-up.

George Pell's part of it,
you know.

So the credibility of George Pell...

(SNORTS)

(DOOR UNLOCKS, CREAKS OPEN)

So, I've just walked through here
and I looked up,

and I saw Father Pell
over there in the first pew.

So I put my schoolbag down
just about here somewhere.

Mm-hm.
And I kept walking.

I nodded at him, and he nodded back.

I looked at the altar.
I knew that I had to bow.

So I knelt.

Bernie is retracing his movements
as an 11-year-old boy

when he was preparing
for his confirmation.

He says the nuns had told him
to meet Father Pell

in Ballarat Cathedral after school.

And this is the same trip
you did with...?

Uh, Chris Reed from SANO Task Force.
Yep.

So he walked you through it
in the same way?

Yeah, same way. Exactly the same.
Doing the investigation, he was.

So little of Bernie's childhood
was documented

that every small proof of events
is important.

We got a copy of his
confirmation certificate.

I got this from the office for you.

It shows that your story is spot-on -
the dates are right.

That's you.

That's the record of your...

That's amazing.

And you were spot-on with Mulkearns.

Wow.

That afternoon, Bernie says,
Father Pell told him

he was taking him
to meet Bishop Mulkearns.

Then we proceeded to go over
to another building.

And I'll never forget
the doors that I went through.

They were sort of arched.

And I remember it had
two doors that opened outwards,

but only one was open.

The other one was bolted shut.

So we walked through there,

walked along a little passageway,
and then, um...

..Father Pell
sort of went left a bit

and then came back about
20 seconds later with another man.

And I looked at that other man
and I thought, "Wow."

He was sort of wearing
black with pink, you know.

But he had a much bigger cross.

Much bigger.

And, uh...

And Father Pell introduced me to him
as Bishop Mulkearns.

He said, "Congratulations,"

and something along the lines that,
"You're blessed."

And, "Have you picked your cross?"

I do remember that, that you get
a necklace with a cross on it

and you've got a choice of what
style of crucifix you want to pick.

After meeting Mulkearns, Bernie says

that Pell offered him the chance
to earn some pocket money.

Well, he walked me outside and said,

"I want you to rake up the piles
of leaves that the gardener's left

"and take them around
to near the incinerator."

So I did all those,
went back inside the presbytery

and, uh,

Father Pell came out
from down the back left side...

..and, uh, said, "Are you finished?"

And I said, "Yes, I am."

And then Bishop Mulkearns came.

And Father Pell proceeded
to look at me and go,

"Look at the state of your hands.
Look at you.

"You need to have a shower.

"I can't take you
back to the sisters

"in that...looking like that."

"Oh, OK, Father."

Uh, he turned to Bishop Mulkearns

and said, "I'm just taking
young Bernard up for a shower."

And Mulkearns didn't even
say a word, but smirked.

During their investigation,
Detective Chris Reed

and a video photographer walked
Bernie through the presbytery

that they'd come to view
as a crime scene.

I don't remember going upstairs
as a kid, but I did.

We went into one of their
little dormitories.

You know, where it's just got a bed,
a shower and a basin

and, you know, just whatever.

And I went through, I don't know,
five or six of them.

I think we got to
the second-last one...

..and I knew it.

I said, "That's it. That's it.

"That's where I had to shower
with George Pell."

I got in first.

He said, "Use the soap.

"Wash yourself
like I've showed you."

So I did.

And I don't know how it came,
I don't know exact words,

but, "Well, maybe I should
have a shower too."

So he ended up getting
in the shower with me...

..and lathering each other up
and washing each other's genitals.

So, he took his clothes off
and got in the shower?

Shower with me. Yes, he did.

What was he doing to you
in the shower?

Oh, fondling me.
I'm fondling him, washing him.

Did he get you to touch his penis?

Oh, for sure.
And soap him and wash him.

And, you know, "You wash me
and I'll wash you,"

and all this sort of stuff.

And I can remember him
standing behind me.

And while he was lathering me

with sort of, like,
his arms around me...

..I could feel an erection...

..pushing...pushing against me.

So I turned around and saw it.

That's when I froze.

Because I could feel
he's pushing it lower into my back

and his breathing
is getting a bit heavier,

and, you know,
"Something's going on here."

My brain was telling me
to get out of that shower.

This is not right.

I had to get out.

Bernie says he got dressed
and went downstairs to wait for Pell.

I sat down there alone.
I didn't see anybody.

Pell came down
about 10, 15 minutes later.

I heard the car keys jingling.

"You ready to go back?"

And we walked out of the presbytery,
around the corner,

just to the side of the presbytery,

into a light tan or cream-coloured
Toyota Crown or Cressida.

(ENGINE STARTS)

He put his seatbelt on
and started the car.

And, uh...before we even drove off,

he said, "Do you want
your pocket money?"

I said, "Yes, please, Father."

And he leant over in his pocket

and pulled out a brown $1 note.

I'll never forget it.
A brown $1 note.

"The reason I'm giving you $1

"is you're not to tell a soul
that you've done some work...

"..here at the presbytery."

"Yes, Father, I won't tell a soul."

Back at Nazareth House,

Bernie's friend Peter Clarke
recalls a change came over him.

I don't know, I don't know.
Something went wrong.

Bernard, part of him changed.

And I never really
ever looked at it.

And I don't know whether or not
he was being bullied or something,

but I knew that Bernard had changed,
dramatically changed.

He became withdrawn,
quiet, non-engaging.

You know, I don't even know
whatever happened to Bernard.

Did you think about telling anybody
what happened at the presbytery?

No.

I'm not gonna tell
the Sisters of Nazareth.

They're not gonna believe me.

"Go away. How dare you?"

They're not going to believe me
over a priest.

No way. It's not gonna happen.

Good morning.

Today, Victoria Police have
charged Cardinal George Pell

with historical
sexual assault offences.

Cardinal Pell is facing
multiple charges

in respect of
historic sexual offences.

And there are multiple complainants
relating to those charges.

The matter will now proceed
through the courts. Thank you.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLATTER)

Almost two years after the police
first approached him...

..Bernie would now have to tell
his story in a courtroom.

The DPP started getting
in contact with me.

They told me that there's
going to be a committal

and, "You're going to be part of it,
you're going to testify."

As the court date approached,

the pressure on him began
to build and build.

It's the worst three months
of my life.

I went to the darkest
of darkest places.

On March 6, 2018,

Bernie and his partner arrived
in Melbourne for the committal.

I started the evening with
a full packet of 40 cigarettes.

By the morning, I had two left.

And I did not sleep one wink.

Hating the world,
hating him, hating myself.

Angry, depressed, sad.

You name it, my whole...

All of my emotions just
controlled my whole being.

Was it fear? What was it?

Fear, everything.
I was scared of going to court,

I was ashamed, I was embarrassed,
I was just hurt, angry.

And in times of need like that,
you turn to your mother,

and I didn't have a mother
to turn to.

(CRIES)

Where's my mum? I want my mum.

I don't have a mum.

You don't have a mother, Bernard.

Get out of it, mate. Get out of it.

And I wanted to die.

I'll be honest, I don't care.
I wanted to die.

Early in the morning,
Bernie rang Chris Reed

and told the detective
he was suicidal.

And I've never seen two police
officers get to me so quick

because they knew I was desperate
and I needed help.

And court is due to start
in a few hours.

And I'm due to get grilled...

..like I'm the fucking villain.

I'm not the villain, mate.

You know, and that's why victims
don't come forward.

They don't because they don't want
to go through the trauma again.

Bernie decided to pull out
of the committal.

Do you regret that you couldn't
go through with it?

Yes. Oh, yeah, immensely.

Yeah, immensely.

Yeah, I do. But I wasn't ready.

Cardinal Pell was committed
to stand trial on 10 charges.

He pleaded not guilty
to all of them.

The charges were split
into two trials.

After Pell was convicted for the
offences in Melbourne Cathedral

in the 1990s,
the second trial was abandoned.

Allegations by Bernie
and the other complainants

would not be tested in court.

And why now? Why talk about it now?

Um...

I guess it's like the fires,
really, when you think about it.

You know, you get a fire,

the CFA, the volunteers,
they're all going through,

they might throw a lot of water
out there and then they go home

and on to the next adventure.

But is the fire really out,
or is it just simmering?

BLACKER: The Church has never
been held accountable.

Never. Never held accountable.

The royal commission came and went
and it's business as usual.

Steve Blacker is able to find
some peace with his beloved horses,

but his own simmering anger
about his rape by Gerald Ridsdale

caused him to launch
a landmark civil case

to unravel George Pell's legal legacy

of protecting church assets
from its victims.

Money is very low
on the list of priorities for me.

It's not about that.

It's about getting some answers,
getting some admissions,

getting it out in black and white.

Like so many others,
the little boy who loved horses

had been put in harm's way
by his own church.

Steve Blacker sued the current bishop
and the Diocese of Ballarat

for the decisions that led to him
being raped.

It took 18 months
battling through the court,

dragging our vulnerable client
through the court,

to basically force them to say,
"Well, actually, mm, yes,

"we did know after all."

I mean, 18 months of legal battles
for no reason at all.

And after all of the claims that
things would be done differently,

that there would be
a new attitude towards victims

and that compassion lay
at the heart of their response.

Mm. Utter hypocrisy.

Lies, really, if you think about it.

They're just telling a whole lot
of bullshit lies, full stop.

In Ballarat Cathedral,
there's a blank space

where Bishop Mulkearns's
memorial should be.

Despite its public shame,

the Church still fought Steve Blacker
on every point.

When they finally admitted defeat,

he was awarded more than
$1 million in damages.

It's the very first time,
to my knowledge,

that any Catholic institution
has admitted legal liability

for historical sex crimes.

Certainly it's the very first
diocese in the country.

Now, that is huge. It is huge.

The tables are turning.

The power imbalance
is beginning to shift.

I don't know how many people.

I'm told there's 100-plus
in the queue after me.

There's thousands more that
haven't come out, come forward.

On August 21, 2019,

the Victorian Court of Appeal
delivered its judgment

in the case of George Pell
versus the Queen.

Justice Maxwell and I accepted
the prosecution's submission

that the complainant was
a very compelling witness,

was clearly not a liar,

was not a fantasist
and was a witness of truth.

Their decision was overturned
eight months later

by the full bench of the High Court.

The seven judges
quashing Pell's convictions

and acquitting him on all charges.

Pell was set free...

..but what are the implications
for his anonymous accuser?

One of the things that my client
was concerned about today

is that he doesn't want people to
feel discouraged from coming forward

and reporting to
the proper authorities.

A lot has been achieved

because people have had
the courage to come forward.

And the children
are finally doing now

what the Catholic Church never did -

they are coming forward
and reporting matters to the police.

And nothing is going to silence
those voices now.

On the final day of the Vatican
summit on child abuse,

Archbishop Mark Coleridge
has been chosen by Pope Francis

to deliver the homily.

In his room in a convent
near St Peter's Basilica,

Coleridge searches
for the right words.

This homily is a meditation
upon power.

At the heart of
what we call child abuse,

there is power

and its dark and destructive use.

In Ballarat, Pell's lifelong friend
Eric Bryant is still struggling

to understand how so many
of his fellow priests succumbed

to that dark and destructive power.

Well, see, they didn't have love.

They had lust.

You know, the kids need to be loved.

And not just by Mum and Dad.

They need to feel safe and secure.

I'm getting emotional now.

But, um...

Yeah, I think if they're
lusted after, they're ruined.

So, I think one of my main tasks
as a priest...

..is to love everyone.

And I think above all,
to love our kids.

And let them hug me if they want to.

To pat them on the head
if they need it.

And not to be afraid.

I'm sorry.

We're in a mess, aren't we?

We have seen victims
and survivors as the enemy.

But we have not loved them.

We have not blessed them.

Coleridge used his moment
in the presence of the Pope

to demand that the Church's priority
must be its victims.

We will do all we can
to bring justice and healing

to survivors of abuse.

We will listen to them,
believe them, walk with them.

We will ensure that those
who have abused

are never again able to offend.

In the end, what Bernie most wants
after a lifetime of pain

is to be believed.

So, why do you want
to say it out loud now?

I want to heal now, Sarah, OK?

I've carried that burden
for long enough.

The shame, the embarrassment.

Please don't be ashamed.

I'm not ashamed now, mate. Nah.

It's not my shame anymore.

George, have it.
George, it's yours. Deal with it.

I'm going to wake up tomorrow

and I'm the Bernie
I want to be, mate.

You have the shame, mate.

You have it all. I don't want it.

I don't want it anymore.

Captions by Red Bee Media

Copyright Australian
Broadcasting Corporation