One of Pope Francis' top advisers has said the Catholic Church made "enormous mistakes" in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests over centuries. Australian Cardinal George Pell's comments came as he gave evidence at an extraordinary public hearing of an Australian investigative commission just a few streets from the Vatican. Cardinal Pell spoke via video link 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 travelled across the globe to be on hand for Cardinal Pell's evidence, a significant show of accountability in the church's long-running abuse saga. The lead counsel assisting the commission, Gail Furness, questioned Cardinal Pell about current Vatican efforts to address the scandal as well as his own past in Australia, including how he dealt with abuse allegations as a priest, educator and adviser to former Ballarat bishop Ronald Mulkearns. Cardinal Pell said: "I'm not here to defend the indefensible. The church has made enormous mistakes and is working to remedy those." He said the church had "mucked things up and let people...
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