Ballarat clergy abuse survivors say they feel vindicated after more than $169,000 was raised to send victims to Rome to front Cardinal George Pell in person.
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On Monday, a Go Fund Me page was started by media personalties Meshel Laurie and Gorgi Coghlan.
Since then more than 2500 individual donations have flooded in including one anonymous donation of $10,000.
Survivors hoped to raise $55,000 to allow 15 representatives from Ballarat to attend the Cardinal’s evidence in Rome but they have now more than doubled their target.
Survivor David Ridsdale said after years of injustice victims were left floored by the support.
"It's a new emotion, I'm having to hold in tears," Mr Ridsdale said.
"It's certainly joyful but it's been such a long wait. There are a lot of tears in the eyes of survivors. They are a mixture of joy and pain. It is pain for all the victims who are gone, who have died...it is pain for all the people still struggling. But there are also happy tears because this just isn't about survivors. It's about our families, it's our communities, it's our cities, everybody has been affected by this."
Mr Ridsdale said it wasn’t just about creating a change for the future but leaving behind a legacy.
"It's not about destroying religions or churches," he said.
"Everybody wanted to believe our moral leaders for such a long time. We want the church to look back and say ‘we can’t believe how ignorant we were..but isn't it good we are doing something about it now’." Survivor Andrew Collins said victims were humbled.
“It is absolutely amazing to think the community has got behind survivors and contributed so much,” Mr Collins said.
“We never, ever, expected this. We are sitting on the edge of out seats waiting to hear back from the commission to see if we will be allowed to attend in Rome.”
Mr Collins said it was paramount survivors were able to “look George Pell in the eyes” when he gave evidence.
“We know how hard it is to have sit there and give evidence as we have all done it ourselves,” he said. “We feel it is imperative George Pell is put under the same circumstances we were under.”
Cardinal Pell previously succeeded in a bid to remain in Rome after the inquiry accepted a doctor's report which said he was too sick to return.
Comedian Tim Minchin also took a swipe at Cardinal Pell in a provocative song he in which he calls on Australia's highest-ranking cleric in the Catholic Church to come home and face clergy abuse victims.
Minchin performed the song on Network Ten’s The Project.
The musical attack sparked a groundswell of support from viewers and social media users.
However, The Project co-host Steve Price leapt to Cardinal Pell’s defence labelling it “disgusting”.
On Wednesday afternoon, the song ranked number eight in the iTunes charts as the nation’s most downloaded song.
All proceeds from the song will go directly to the fund for survivors.
Survivors hoped to hear an outcome for their request to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in the coming days.
The inquiry released a statement which said enquiries were being made about venues for Cardinal Pell to give evidence in Rome and more details would be released once a decision was made.
The Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council also issued a statement which restated Cardinal Pell's preference to appear at the hearing in person.
"It has always been our preference that Cardinal Pell give his evidence in person but his medical condition means this cannot happen," chief executive Francis Sullivan said.
Details: gofundme.com/SendBallaratToRome
