Grounds for suspicion

This Royal Commission quote from Pell looks to me like an admission of guilt for proceediings based on "command responsibility" and "criminal failure to take action to prevent foreseeable harm to children". Many others would be joined in the same proceedings.

"If the truck driver picks up some lady and then molests her, I don't think it's appropriate, because it is contrary to the policy, for the ownership, the leadership of that company to be held responsible," Cardinal Pell told the commission via video link from Rome.

Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan said priests got access to children with the parents' consent, unlike truck drivers.

"The relationship between the priest and a child is quite different to that between the truck driver and the casual passenger, isn't it?" he asked Cardinal Pell.

"Yes, I would certainly concede that," Cardinal Pell responded."

The "ownership, the leadership" of the flock may view their role as shepherds preparing their flock for fleecing the same way other corporate criminals do. But our society is less tolerant of failure to protect children from abuse than of the usual run of corporate crime such as bankers stealing from dead clients.

I am not a prosecutor so it isn't up to me. But Victoria urgently needs competent prosecutors with integrity.