December 11, 2015 — George Pell “too unwell” to appear before Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Cardinal George Pell’s legal team communicated to the Royal Commission on this date that he was too unwell to travel to Australia from the Vatican in order to give evidence in person. It’s possible that Pell was actually ill – he was quite old, and had had medical problems in the previous few years – but it was widely viewed as a stalling tactic by the general public in Australia.

And given that when he did finally testify he was charged with several crimes, it’s hard to think that it was anything else.