Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 25, 2023 / 10:05 am
The Catholic Church on Friday suffered a loss in an Australian appeals court after a panel of judges said an abuse case brought by the father of an alleged victim of Cardinal George Pell could proceed.
The cardinal allegedly abused the boy in the 1990s; his father brought suit against the Catholic Church and Pell in 2022, shortly before Pell’s death in January of this year. The alleged victim himself died of a heroin overdose in 2014.
Church officials responded to the filing by arguing that the father was not the direct victim of the alleged abuse and therefore lacked standing to sue.
The Victoria Supreme Court ruled last year that the lawsuit could proceed. On Aug. 25 the Court of Appeal agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling from last year, ordering that the father could continue with his suit.