Pell welcomes critical report The Catholic Church's "institutional failure" to respond appropriately to child abuse extends to its leader in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, a parliamentary inquiry reports. But Cardinal Pell says he welcomes the Victorian inquiry's report and supports many of its recommendations. The parliamentary inquiry into child abuse took Cardinal Pell to task in its report over his attempt to separate the church as a whole from the actions of senior religious figures it said had "minimalised and trivialised" the issue. Cardinal Pell denied claims the church had trivialised child sex abuse. By the standards of common decency and by today's standards, church authorities were not only slow to deal with the abuse, but sometimes did not deal with it in any appropriate way at all. This is indefensible," Cardinal Pell said. Cardinal Pell said he supported recommendations for the creation of a government-established independent, alternative avenue for justice for victims of child abuse. He said a recommendation for the Catholic Church to become incorporated, and therefore capable of being sued, was being examined.