Premier Daniel Andrews ‘very clear’ there will not be a state memorial service for George Pell in Victoria

Title: Premier Daniel Andrews ‘very clear’ there will not be a state memorial service for George Pell in Victoria

Author: Serena Seyfort

Publisher: 9News

Date: 12JAN2023

The Victorian premier has made it “very clear” there will not be a state memorial service for George Pell, saying he couldn’t think of “anything more distressing” for abuse survivors.While making an announcement about level crossing removals in Melbourne’s west, Daniel Andrews gave his condolences to Pell’s family, friends and colleagues and also to all victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

“This will be a challenging time for friends and family … but also this will be a very challenging time for victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, so our thoughts are with them,” he said.

Andrews said his government would not be holding a state memorial service and had not received any requests to do so since Pell’s death in Rome on Tuesday.

“There won’t be a state memorial service,” he said.

“I couldn’t think of anything that would be more distressing for victim-survivors than that.”

Andrews said he was being “very clear about that”, with a message for victims and survivors.

“We see you, we believe you, we support you and you’re at the centre of not only our thoughts, not only our words, but our actions,” he said.

“We will never ever forget victim-survivors of institutional child sex abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.

“We should never forget, never ever forget that predator brothers and priests were systematically moved around, knowingly, as part of a strategy, from one working class parish to the next.”