George Pell funeral: removing abuse victims’ ribbons is wrong, former church official says

Francis Sullivan, the former head of the Catholic church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, says the removal of ribbons commemorating abuse survivors from St Mary's Cathedral appears designed to prevent the scandal from being "associated with Cardinal [George] Pell" in the days leading up to his funeral.

Survivors and their supporters are furious that the church is continually removing ribbons they have tied to the fence surrounding Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral before the requiem mass planned for Pell on Thursday.

The ribbons are intended to give voice to clergy abuse survivors who were often rendered voiceless for decades.

Sullivan, who led the church's response to the child abuse royal commission, said the ribbons' removal appeared to be designed to disassociate Pell from the clergy abuse scandal ahead of Thursday's funeral.

"It does come down to the administrators of [each building] so, by the sounds of things, they're taking a view that they're not going to permit ribbons on the fences," he told Guardian Australia. "You can only assume that it's because they don't want the scandal associated with Cardinal Pell. That's the only way you can read it, in my mind."

He said the church should be encouraging the survivor community to remember the crisis.

"I think, given the history of the atrocious way in which the Catholic church has handled the reality of child sexual abuse, that occasions when the broader survivor community wants that reality to be remembered, should be encouraged," he said.