Cardinal George Pell Condemned Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, has been found guilty in an Australian court on charges that he sexually abused two 13-year-old choir boys (one now deceased) 22 years ago, in December of 1996, in a Melbourne cathedral church corridor, where Pell had just become archbishop, after a Sunday Mass, and in another incident in February of 1997. The decision was handed down by an Australian jury in December, but kept under a strict press embargo until today because a second trial was foreseen on separate charges. But that second trial has been dropped. One of Pell's victims issued a statement through his lawyers. "Like many survivors it has taken me years to understand the impact upon on my life," he said as quoted by The Washington Post. "At some point we realize that we trusted someone we should have feared and we fear those genuine relationships that we should trust." But Pell denied the charges from the outset, entered a plea of "not guilty," and he still maintains his innocence. He was arrested in June of 2017, at which time he held a news conference and said: "There's been relentless character assassination. I'm looking forward finally to having my day in court. I'm innocent of these charges. They are false." His lawyer has said the charges were "just nonsense" and "ultimately based on some kind of fantasy, or a fiction, or an invention," adding that Pell would appeal the conviction. Here below are three reports on this matter, one from the Associated Press, one based on a report in The Australian in April 2015, and one a comment from the traditional Catholic website OnePeterFive. (See also: link to BBC story and link.) One curious point: these grave charges were seemingly not brought against Pell until after he had been appointed by Pope Francis in 2014 to take a key financial post in Rome, in the Vatican. Francis tasked Pell to lead an effort to bring greater transparency to certain aspects of the Vatican's finances. During this process, Pell announced publicly that he had discovered $1 billion in funds kept in accounts that were not part of any public balance sheet. Pell promised to make a full report on those funds, but in 2017 Pope Francis removed Pell from his post after his financial reforms had met with considerable internal resistance. ========== (1) Differences between Cardinal Pell's prosecution and defense (link) Key points of difference between the prosecution and defense cases in the trial that convicted Cardinal George Pell on child sex abuse charges By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Tuesday, February 26, 2019 MELBOURNE, Australia — 3h ago The lawyers representing Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse, and those prosecuting the case painted very different pictures of the events that led to his conviction. Pell was found guilty in December of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the sacristy of a cathedral and weeks later of indecently assaulting one of the choirboys in a cathedral corridor. Reporting on the case in Melbourne, Australia on had been forbidden by the Victoria state County Court until Tuesday. The prosecution said Pell had opportunity to commit the crimes. The defense said it was impossible for the crimes to have gone unnoticed in the busy cathedral moments after masses. The following are key points of difference between the prosecution and defense cases: *Sacristy Episode The defense said the allegation in which Pell caught two choirboys in a change room known as a priests' sacristy at the rear of the cathedral and sexually abused them would have taken at least six minutes and could not have happened undetected. The defense said that the sacristy was a "hive of activity" after mass, where an altar server testified that 30 seconds did not pass without a priest, altar server or church official being inside the room returning chalices and the missal from the altar and helping the archbishop disrobe or disrobing themselves. The defense also said Pell would have been standing on the front steps of the cathedral chatting to worshippers during the first two Sunday Solemn Masses he said as archbishop at the cathedral in the moments after services when the complainant testified he was molested. Records show that the sacristy episode could only have happened on Dec. 15 or 22, 1996. The defense said church protocols dating back to the 15th century require that a bishop is never unattended while robed and Pell had been dressed in full archbishop's regalia except for the crosier (shepherd's crook) and the miter (pointed hat) when the offending occurred. Cathedral Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Charles Portelli testified that he recalled accompanying Pell and helping the archbishop robe and disrobe during Pell's first two Sunday masses at the cathedral. The prosecution said Portelli smoked 20 cigarettes a day at the time and suggested he might have left Pell at the sacristy door while going outside to smoke. But Portelli denied leaving Pell for a cigarette and the prosecution told the jury they should disregard the smoking-break theory as speculation. The prosecution argued that there was an opportunity for the offending to take place, with altar servers allowing worshippers a few minutes of "the privacy of prayer" after mass before moving in to clear the altar space of sacred items and returning them to the sacristy. The prosecution also said Pell did not always spend time conversing with parishioners on the cathedral steps after mass. *Archbishop's Garments The defense argued that Pell could not have parted his garments to expose his penis as the complainant had alleged to police, with defense lawyer Robert Richter calling such a scenario "nonsense" and "laughable." The defense accused the complainant of altering his evidence in later testimony after discovering that the garments did not open along the middle. The jury was given the cumbersome garments to examine in the jury room during their deliberations. The prosecution argued that the full length robe known as an alb was "not like a straight jacket," and there was "little difference" between the complainant's police statements and his court testimony. Tuesday, February 26, 2019
*Corridor Episode The defense said Pell could not have shoved a choirboy against a corridor wall and painfully squeezed his genitals following a mass on Feb. 23, 1997 without being noticed, even if they were partially obscured by a pillar. "Whether or not he's hiding behind a pillar doesn't matter because this gentleman, George Pell, ... all six foot four (193 centimeters) of him, wouldn't be hiding behind any pillar anyway. He would be seen by whoever was in the corridor to be violently pushing someone against the wall and reaching for their nether parts. And so we say that is just nonsense," Richter said. The prosecution said the indecent assault was brief, Pell would have had reason to be heading to his sacristy via that corridor and might not have lingered out the front of the cathedral chatting with the congregation that day because he had to say another mass that afternoon at a church in the Melbourne suburb of Maidstone. *The complainant's credibility The defense said no other witness corroborated the 34-year-old complainant's allegations and the other alleged victim had told his parents before he died of an accidental drug overdose in 2014 that he had never been molested while he was a chorister. The defense says the complainant's evidence was full of "improbabilities and impossibilities." "His account is ultimately based on some kind of fantasy, or a fiction, or an invention. I would like to think that it's not an outright altogether invention, that it was based in some way on some fantasy that has morphed over the years into him believing that he'd been assaulted," Richter said. The prosecution described the complainant's testimony as "powerful and persuasive." The evidence of other witnesses supported several aspects of his evidence, prosecutors said. *The choir's procession from the cathedral The defense argued that none of the choristers recalled seeing two choirboys break from a procession from the cathedral front door to the choir change room after mass in December 1996 because it never happened. The complainant testified that he and his fellow victim had peeled away from a procession and returned to the cathedral through a side door before Pell caught them in the sacristy and abused them. The prosecution said whether the boys had been able to break away from the procession was a key issue for the jury in determining Pell's guilt, along with whether Pell had stayed on the cathedral front steps chatting with the congregation after mass and whether he returned to the sacristy alone. The defense said the pair, as sopranos, would have been toward the front of the procession with older boys and adult choristers behind them. The older choristers would have enforced a high degree of discipline. The prosecution argued the procession did not operate with "military precision" and with 61 choristers in the procession plus altar servers and priests, it was probable that the pair could have slipped away without being noticed. *Altar Wine The complainant testified that the wine Pell caught him swigging was red, while there was evidence that the cathedral used white altar wine at the time. The defense points to Sacristan Max Potter's evidence that the wine was always locked in a sacristy safe after Sunday Solemn Mass. The prosecution says as a 13 year-old boy, the complainant could be expected to be inexperienced in varieties of wine. =======
(2) Cardinal Pell discovers a billion lost euros at Vatican (link) Published: 13 April 2015 Cardinal Pell discovery More than a billion euros in previously “hidden” Church funds will be revealed in new Vatican budget audit. But the funds have not been misused and are not part of corruption and scandal that have previously shamed the Vatican, reports The Australian. The vast sums of undeclared money have been hidden in various bank accounts by organisations and groups within the Holy See in Rome. Although the funds have not been misused, the money has not been properly disclosed or available for the full use of the Vatican because it has been hidden away in an Italian practice of keeping aside undeclared finds. It is now expected that Cardinal George Pell, appointed by the Pope a year ago as the Vatican treasurer, will disclose in his audit of Vatican funds as part of next month’s budget that more than a billion euros have been hidden away. Cardinal Pell, who is introducing tough, modern financial rules for the Vatican, said previously he found hundreds of thousands of hidden euros as he applied his new audit standards to the Holy See. Shortly after taking over the role last year, he said he would be aiming for “substantial transparency” for the Vatican’s finances. “We are working so that international financial standards will be followed in all the dicasteries (departments) and sections of the Holy See,” he said. “Our ambition is to become… a model of financial management, rather than cause for occasional scandal.” ========== (3) Cardinal Pell’s Conviction Announced After New Trial Falls Apart (link) By Steve Skojec February 25, 2019 I’m not even going to attempt to present this one as a straight news piece. The inescapable feeling one gets when looking at the story is that it’s a farce. After months under an Australian court’s gag order, the December conviction of Cardinal George Pell on decades-old sex abuse allegations has just been announced. The news comes after another trial scheduled to happen this month has fallen apart. The question of whether the cardinal is guilty or innocent remains. It’s currently breaking news pretty much everywhere. Cardinal George Pell isn’t a man I have a particular affinity for. He’s known as a “conservative,” which means only so much to a traditionalist like me. He’s a politician, like most bishops of note, if a little more rough around the edges. But he was brought into the Vatican to do a job — audit and reform the Vatican bank — and when he found over a billion Euros in the Vatican mattresses, he was suddenly called back to Australia on decades-old sexual abuse allegations as papal hatchet man Archbishop (Giovanni Angelo) Becciu swooped in to put a stop to any momentum the financial reforms might have. In July of 2017, I wrote a piece entitled “The Destruction of Cardinal Pell.” In it, I noted that he had fallen from the good graces of Francis when he signed the 13 Cardinals Letter, and that as soon as the years-old allegations of decades-old sexual abuse against him became formal, there were signs of it being a witch hunt. As I wrote at the time: One can’t help but wonder whether decades-old allegations — usually impossible to prove — will do anything but leave Pell a man with a ruined reputation. Certainly, a guilty verdict under such circumstances seems unlikely. But with headlines like “The Pope’s Pedophile?” now circulating in the mainstream press, even an complete acquittal will never restore his good name. Apparently, I underestimated the Australian courts. Despite the Australian media gag order, the Catholic News Agency under the helm of J.D. Flynn went ahead with stories last December about Pell’s conviction — even after they received a cease and desist order from an Australian judge. In a piece by Ed Condon, the verdict was described in terms that very much called into question whether justice was even attempted. Allow me to quote from it at some length: CNA has spoken to several sources familiar with the Pell case, all of whom expressed disbelief at the verdict. The sources spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the legal gag order imposed by the court. “They have convicted an innocent man,” one source directly familiar with the evidence told CNA. “What’s worse is that they know they have.” An individual who attended the entire trial in person but is unconnected with Pell’s legal team, told CNA that Pell’s lawyers had made an “unanswerable defense.” “It was absolutely clear to everyone in that court that the accusations were baseless. It wasn’t that Pell didn’t do what he’s accused of – he clearly couldn’t have done it.” The allegations are understood to concern Pell assaulting the two choristers in the sacristy of Melbourne cathedral on several occasions immediately following Sunday Mass. The defense presented a range of witnesses who testified that the cardinal was never alone in the sacristy with altar servers or members of the choir, and that in all the circumstances under which the allegations are alleged to have taken place, several people would have been present in the room. The sacristy in Melbourne’s Cathedral has large open-plan rooms, each with open arches and halls, and multiple entrances and exits, the defense noted. Defense attorneys also produced a range of witnesses who testified that Pell was constantly surrounded by priests, other clergy, and guests following Sunday Masses in the cathedral, and that choristers had a room entirely separate from the sacristy in which they changed as a group, before and after Mass. Observers also questioned whether some courtroom tactics used by state prosecutors were intended to stoke anti-clerical feelings in jury members. One priest, a Jesuit, was called as an expert witness by the defense, but was consistently referred to as a “Christian Brother” by prosecutors – a move, the court observer told CNA, that seemed calculated to invoke the religious order at the center of a widely known clerical sexual abuse scandal in the country. “It was a blatant move, but it sums up the sort of anti-Catholic, anti-clerical drift of the whole trial,” CNA’s courtroom source said. “The jury were being winked at.” Full discussion of the charges and the evidence laid against Pell remains impossible because of the media blackout. The gag order was imposed at the request of prosecutors in June, who argued that media attention could bias the case. “It’s absurd,” another source directly familiar with the trial told CNA. “Any Catholic in Victoria can tell you that our media has been steeped in anti-Catholic, anti-clerical and especially anti-Pell coverage for more than two decades. The prosecutors were perfectly happy with all of that leading up to the trial, and for it to carry on now.” “The only thing you can’t talk about are the facts of the case,” the source said. Of course, we will never know for certain the truth of Pell’s innocence or guilt. It’s my understanding that this is why the 8th Commandment is meant to be taken seriously. But despite the Church revisiting the clerical sex abuse crisis in all its debauchery these days, there are reasons to question Pell’s guilt. He was seen as an enemy by the Australian media, who disliked his conservatism. He was seen as an enemy by the entrenched powers within the Vatican, who resisted and resented his financial reforms. He makes a convenient scapegoat for media and anti-Catholics of all kinds in the kind of trial that, by nature, can provide zero physical evidence, and only testimony against testimony — testimony from a single accuser — in a moment where public sentiment against the Catholic Church and its abusers is at an all-time-low. To the last point, a quote from The New York Times’ piece on the conviction says a great deal: “There are no winners,” said Andrew Collins, a clergy sexual abuse survivor from Ballarat. But, he said, “It’s part of the bloodletting that’s needed to happen for the Catholic church.” Part of the bloodletting that’s needed to happen. I suppose it doesn’t matter if it’s symbolic, then. Pope Francis expelled Pell from his C9 in December, at the same time as he dispensed with Cardinal Errazuriz of Chile — himself accused of covering up the abuse of Fr. Fernando Karadima. Two other cardinals said to have failed to deal appropriately with clerical abuse in their dioceses — Marx and Maradiaga — remain in the pope’s council of advisors. As for Pell, he is expected to be sentenced despite concerns over the injustice of his treatment and an appeal against the verdict. He faces a maximum 50-year prison sentence. The cardinal is 77 years old. (end, OnePeterFive piece)
If he is proven innocent, what a horrible cross this man endured! I’m so uncertain about this case because I’ve trusted so many myself personally , and they were found guilty...but Pell might be accused unjustly because he wouldn’t cooperate with the leftist in the church. It could be white martyrdom if he is innocent.
While I can't bring myself to read through this entirely, something does feel off about it. I pray he is among the good and holy rather than the severely strayed.
A billion lost euros Pell discovered? Wow..that’s a pretty big number... Incentive enough to bring a false accusation.....
My gut feeling was and is that he is innocent, and that he is also very much at peace within himself. His whole life is a sacrifice to serve his Master, in season and out.
Cardinal Pell is suffering a white martyrdom. Ever since he was named Archbishop of Melbourne, the press has brayed for his blood. Accused Has Been Wrongly Convicted and Is Paying For Sins of the Church by Andrew Bolt in Brisbane's Courier Mail Newspaper "Cardinal George Pell has been falsely convicted of sexually abusing two boys in their early teens. That's my opinion, based on the overwhelming evidence. And my opinion is also based in part on how many times Pell has been accused of crimes and sins he clearly did not do. But at last some of the truckload of mud thrown at him has stuck. It adds up to this: Pell, Australia's most senior Catholic, has been made to pay for the sins of his church and a media campaign of vilification. He is a scapegoat, not a child abuser. In my opinion. Declaration: I have met Pell perhaps five times inn my life and like him. I am not a Catholic or even a Christian. But here is why I cannot believe this verdict, which clearly shocked reporters when first announced (but suppressed) last year, and which Pell is appealing as unsound. Here is why I don't believe this gothic story - or not enough to think this conviction reasonable. One of the boys, now dead, denied he'd been abused. The other, whose identity and testimony remain secret, didn't speak of it for many years. The attack is meant to have happened straight after mass, when Pell is known to have spoken to worshippers. It allegedly happened in the sacristy, where Pell would have known people were almost certain to walk in. The boys had allegedly slipped away from the procession after mass to break into the sacristy, but none of the other choristers who gave evidence said they'd noticed them doing so. Pell was normally followed everywhere during and after Mass by Monsignor Charles Portelli, who testified that he escorted the then Archbishop from the moment he arrived at the cathedral, until he left. He declared the assault impossible. Not a single witness from what was a busy cathedral at the time of the alleged abuse noticed a thing during the estimated 10 minutes of this alleged attack. There is no history or pattern of similar abuse by Pell, unlike with real church pedophiles such as Gerard Ridsdale who raped or assaulted at least 65 children. Pell was 55 years old at the time of the alleged abuse. No wonder that a first jury failed to convict Pell." Please pray for this wonderful, orthodox man. I have a pamphlet he wrote, "Why Women Can't Be Priests". The devil must hate him. If you've read this far, would you also mind, in your charity, to pray for the best possible outcome, for my children and myself, from my divorce, divorce settlement and annulment. Thank you so much.
Cardinal Pell maintains his innocence, plans to appeal his sex-abuse conviction Lianne Laurence Tue Feb 26, 2019 - 7:53 pm EST https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/c...ence-plans-to-appeal-his-sex-abuse-conviction MELBOURNE, Australia, February 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell are working to keep the 77-year-old Australian prelate out of jail pending an appeal of his convictions of sexually abusing minors. The highest ranking churchman to be charged with sexual offenses, Pell was convicted in December 2018, but details of his trial were under a publication ban until Tuesday. It has now been revealed that Pell was convicted of one charge of sexually penetrating a child under 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act on a child under 16, the BBC reported. Judge Peter Kidd lifted the ban after prosecutors dropped a second trial on unrelated charges based on allegations that Pell sexually abused two boys a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s due to insufficient evidence. Pell’s first trial ended in September with a mistrial and a hung jury, with jurors 10-2 supporting Pell’s acquittal, reported the National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin. The retrial jury of eight men and four women deliberated 3½ days before convicting Pell in December, reported Australian newspaper The Age. Pell steadfastly repudiated the charges and pleaded not guilty. “Cardinal George Pell has always maintained his innocence and continues to do so,” Pell’s lawyer, Paul Galbally, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Although originally the Cardinal faced allegations from a number of complainants, all charges except for those the subject of the appeal have now been either withdrawn, discharged or discontinued. He will not be commenting in the meantime.” Many in the Vatican are of the same mind, according to Pentin. “Most people here don’t believe the verdict,” Pentin told Australian newspaper The Age. “Most here believe Pell is innocent, certainly those who worked with him.” Pentin acknowledged that there’s speculation in the Eternal City that Pell, widely regarded as the third most powerful man in the Vatican, was the victim of a conspiracy to oust him. At the time he was charged, Pell was Vatican treasurer, a member of Pope Francis’ council of nine cardinals, and in the words of the Guardian, had been “handpicked to oversee the Vatican’s complex finances and root out corruption.” “Pell was extremely unpopular in parts of the Vatican, particularly the old guard keen on keeping the old system running because they were doing so well out of it,” Pentin told The Age. “There is this constant suspicion that the timing (of the charges) was not coincidental and there were some backroom dealings to get him out,” he said. Pell, who is recovering from knee surgery, will be back in a Melbourne court Wednesday morning for a pre-sentencing hearing. Each of the five convictions carries a maximum of 10 years in jail, reported theDaily Mail. Judge Kidd was expected to order Pell remain in custody until he is sentenced in about two weeks’ time. However, Pell’s lawyers scheduled a bail hearing in the appeals court Wednesday afternoon in an effort to keep Pell out of jail pending his appeal, reported the Mail. His lawyers won’t get an appeal date until Pell has been sentenced, according to Pentin. Trial details revealed Now published details of Pell’s November trial reveal the prosecution relied mainly on the evidence of one complainant, now 35, who alleged Pell sexually abused him and another choir boy in the sacristy of Melbourne’s cathedral in 1996 when they were 13 years old, reported the Guardian. The complainant alleged that he and the other boy left the procession after Sunday High Mass and snuck into the sacristy and were drinking sacramental wine when Pell caught them. Pell then proceeded to orally rape the complainant, and sexually molest him and the other chorister, reported the Guardian. The complainant further alleged that Pell abused him again in early 1997 by pushing him against a wall in the hallway to the chorister’s change room and squeezing his genitals. The second alleged victim died of a heroin overdose in 2014 and told his mother he had never been sexually abused, reported the Guardian. Pell’s lawyer, Robert Richter, argued the complainant’s story “makes no sense because it did not happen,” the Guardian reported. He said it was improbable the boys would leave the procession unnoticed. The sacristy would have been a “hive of activity” after a High Mass and it was “laughable” to suggest Pell would be able to move his cumbersome robes to expose himself and do what the complainant alleged, reported ABC. Cathedral Master of Ceremonies Monsignor Charles Portelli testified that he remembered accompanying Pell and helping the archbishop robe and disrobe after the Sunday Masses during the time the events allegedly took place, it reported. Richter also questioned the complainant’s credibility. "His account is ultimately based on some kind of fantasy, or a fiction, or an invention,” he said, according to ABC. The Crown’s case “is built on speculation. You would not hang a chicken on that, let alone decide a man’s fate,” Richter told the jury. “Only a madman would attempt to rape two boys in the priests’ sacristy immediately after Sunday solemn Mass,” he pointed out in his summation. Pell echoed this himself in a video interview with a detective that was played in the court, the Guardian reported. Pell described the charges as “a load of garbage and falsehood.” When the detective told him the alleged assault took place after Sunday Mass, Pell replied: “That’s good for me as it makes it even more fantastically impossible.” However, Pell’s decision not to take the stand “made a negative impression” on the jury, one source told NCR’s Pentin. Pell targeted for years Pell was removed from the Council of Cardinals in December after the verdict, and his five-year term as Vatican treasurer expired Sunday, according to The Age. The Vatican confirmed Tuesday that Pope Francis had taken “precautionary” steps of banning Pell from public ministry and contact with minors pending his appeal, CruxNow reported. The Holy See will wait for the results of the appeal before taking further steps, said Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti. He reiterated that the Vatican has “maximum respect for the Australian judicial authorities” and that Pell “has confirmed his innocence and has the right to defend himself to the last degree.” Richter is appealing the conviction as unreasonable and contrary to the evidence the jury heard, according to The Age. A source close to Pell told Pentin the same. “People in court saw how flimsy the evidence was,” said the source. “This is an act of outrageous malice by a prejudiced jury. The media convicted him long ago in the court of public opinion and he did not receive a fair trial.” That is echoed by commentators who say Pell was targeted long before his conviction. “Charges have been flying at Pell for 15 years. Hundreds of claimants insist that he must have done this and must have known that,” wrote Julia Yost in First Things in July 2017, when Pell was first charged with multiple counts of historic sexual offenses. About half of these were thrown out by a magistrate in May 2018 on the grounds of insufficient evidence. “Cardinal Pell has become an unpopular figure in Australia, a convenient scapegoat for the abuse scandal there,” wrote Phillip Lawler in Catholic Culture after Pell’s conviction in December. “It is noteworthy that police opened an investigation of Cardinal Pell, looking for evidence of sexual abuse, before receiving a complaint,” he wrote. According to sources, Pell is “taking each development as it comes, and willing to see the process through to the end to prove his innocence,” reported Pentin.
The Witch Hunt Against Australia’s Cardinal George Pell: Five Facts You Need To Know 21st century Catholic Church martyr? Australia's Cardinal George Pell Yes, the cases against Australia's Cardinal George Pell are nothing less than a wild-eyed anti-Catholic witch hunt by the Australian government against the Catholic Church. Take it to the bank. What is our evidence? Plenty. Here are five fast facts you should know about the false accusations against Cardinal Pell. 1. The Australian government began investigating Cardinal Pell over five years ago even though there had been no crime reported against him. That's right. It is common sense that police only investigate a person when there is suspicion or evidence of that person committing a crime. But this was not the case with Cardinal Pell. A Melbourne detective admitted in court that an investigation began against Pell in March of 2013 even though there were no criminal complaints against him. Pell's attorney then rightly observed, "It was an operation looking for a crime and a complainant." 2. Pell's publicly known accusers are a hodgepodge of career criminals, admitted drug addicts, and ne'er-do-wells who have lodged bogus complaints before. As we posted last June, Pell's accusers are real winners. There has been the late Damian Dignan, who had a criminal history for assault and drunk driving and also accused a female teacher of beating him during class when he was a youth. And Lyndon Monument, an admitted drug addict, served almost a year in prison for violently assaulting a man and a woman over a drug debt. The unlucky Monument has also accused a boyhood teacher of forcing him to perform sex acts. But it would be hard to top the bloke who first accused Pell in 2002 of abuse back in 1961. This lad was indeed a career criminal who had not only been involved with drug dealing, illegal gambling, tax evasion, and "organized crime in a labor union," but also had an impressive 39 court convictions under his belt. A upstanding citizen, indeed. A judge cleared Pell after an inquiry. One can only imagine the other shifty chaps we have not even heard about. 3. Even secular observers have admitted that Pell is not being treated fairly at all. In a May 2017 article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian politician Amanda Vanstonebegan her piece by saying that she is "no fan of organized religion," but then she wrote: "The media frenzy surrounding Cardinal George Pell is the lowest point in civil discourse in my lifetime. I'm 64. "What we are seeing is no better than a lynch mob from the dark ages.Some in the media think they are above the law both overseas and at home … "What we are seeing now is far worse than a simple assessment of guilt. The public arena is being used to trash a reputation and probably prevent a fair trial. Perhaps the rule of law sounds as if it's too esoteric to worry about." And a prominent legal group in Australia, the Justice Institute of Victoria, has concluded that the "lack of regard" for the cardinal's rights was "a startling affront" to the cornerstone of the nation's legal system. 4. Accusations against Cardinal Pell were widely circulated in a 2017 book that has been roundly discredited. In 2017, media outlets in Australia fell over themselves to heap praise on a Pell-bashing book by muckraking writer Louise Mulligan. Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell is Mulligan's wild, 384-page attempt to single-handedly take down the cleric on her own, but the media surely tried to help the woman along. But as writer Peter Craven demonstrated in a June 2017 review of the book, Mulligan's scholarship leaves a lot to be desired. In short, Craven concluded: "Louise Milligan's Cardinal has plenty of inaccuracies ranging from St Kevin's uniforms to clerical titles. She is the diametrical opposite of Helen Garner in her famous trial books: instead of presenting herself as an unreliable narrator – full of doubts and flaws – she is a writer of flaming convictions and sensationalist prose who backs her intuitions in the face of any notion of evidence or scruple. "The upshot is a racketing case for the prosecution. One can only hope to God that in the present climate people will be capable of realising this is a case being mounted for a witch trial." And how true Craven's prophecy has become! 5. Cardinal Pell has vehemently denied all the charges against him. Let us have Cardinal Pell speak for himself. Here he is in June 2017: "These matters have been under investigation now for nearly two years. There have been leaks to the media, relentless character assassination, and for more than a month claims that a decision on laying charges is 'imminent' … "I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me … "I have been consistent and clear in my total rejection of these allegations. News of these charges strengthens my resolve, and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name and then return to my work in Rome." When we outlined facts about Cardinal Pell's case last summer, we wrote at the time: We're not buying any of this. We pray that justice will be served, but we doubt it. TheMediaReport.com has been observing the climate against the Catholic Church in Australia for some time now, and we have never seen anything like it. Imagine the hatred against the Church of the Boston Globe and the New York Times combined and spread out over an entire country. The climate is truly insane. Australian law enforcement is claiming that Pell's case is being treated like any other historical offense. No, it isn't. Police do not give a rip about someone coming forward to claim someone touched them over their bathing suit 40 years ago. But this is a Catholic priest, and a high-ranking one at that. This is a big fish in the eyes of law enforcement. Will another innocent cleric be dragged off to prison for crimes he never committed? We believe so, but we hope we're wrong. Unfortunately, if the stories out of Australia are any indication, we have been entirely correct. http://www.themediareport.com/2018/12/31/cardinal-george-pell-case-facts/
Catholics, Sex, and Cardinal Pell (A Media Railroading) The verdict is not an indictment of George Pell and the Catholic Church. It is an indictment of the media, whose vindictive witch hunt led to frenzied demands that someone, anyone, be punished. In this case the designated victim has done more than anyone to eradicate the very abuse for which he was laughably convicted STRANGELY, for one usually so sceptical and questioning, the alleged high rate of child abuse in the Catholic church was something I simply absorbed from the ether, or perhaps from the ABC, which, since I disagree with it about almost everything, is my primary news source. Looking back, I am still not sure why, while enthusiastically poking holes in most other ABC reporting, I was content to accept their claims about the church being the locus of most child abuse. I wasn’t a Catholic at the time. Perhaps it was simply comforting to be able to think of something so nasty as being nothing to do with anyone I knew, or any organisations I was involved in. Except it wasn’t true. It is hard to know where to start with this, so I will make just a few key points, which you can follow up or check if you wish. During the Royal Commission into institutional child abuse, the ABC breathlessly reported that 60% of child abuse in a religious institution took place within the Catholic Church. Shocking! How disgusting! What a hive of degenerates! Except that by not telling the whole story, the ABC was saying something completely untrue. What was left out was that during the time under investigation, 80% of children who attended a religious school or were resident in a religious institution, were students in or resident in a Catholic institution. The twenty percent of students/residents in institutions run by other religious groups accounted for 40% of the total abuse reported. In other words, a student in a non-Catholic religious school was more than twice as likely to have been molested than a student in a Catholic school. In fact, Catholic clergy have lower rates of abuse than clergy of other religions or denominations (some groups, for example the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have far higher reported rates of abuse than any mainstream denomination). In turn, clergy of other denominations have lower rates of abuse than occur in secular community and sports groups and public schools (the Boy Scouts in the US has just filed for bankruptcy because it cannot keep up with payouts for abuse claims). And abuse in any church, school or community group is far outstripped by abuse in the home, where it has been estimated 90% of abuse occurs. As Bettina Arndt noted It’s total hypocrisy. We jump up and down in the Royal Commission about abuse of people in institutions. We don’t give a stuff about the major risk for children which is, you know, children in single parent families being abused by boyfriends passing in and out of those families … There are a whole lot of areas [of sexual child abuse] we don’t discuss because they are not politically correct. Obviously, we’re trying to get the Catholic Church and attack churches. MORE: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/02/catholics-sex-and-cardinal-pell/
Don't know if this is good or bad....since the Vatican stalled forever w/ McCarrick but left Pell out there swinging alone. Vatican To Open Own Investigation Of Cardinal Pell February 27, 2019 by sd From Reuters: The Vatican is opening its own investigation into accusations against Cardinal George Pell, who was found guilty of sexual abuse of minors in his native Australia, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The move means that Pell, who maintains his innocence and plans to appeal the verdict, could be dismissed from the priesthood if the Vatican’s doctrinal department also finds him guilty. The Pell conviction has been particularly embarrassing for the Vatican and Pope Francis, coming just two days after the end of a major meeting of Church leaders on how to better tackle the abuse of children by clergy. (hmmmm) The 77-year-old Pell, a former top Vatican official, will spend his first night behind bars on Wednesday after he was remanded in custody pending sentencing for sexually abusing two choir boys in Australia two decades ago. “After the guilty verdict in the first instance concerning Cardinal Pell, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) will now handle the case following the procedure and within the time established by canonical norm,” Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said. He did not elaborate about the timing or the procedure. The investigation could lead to a full trial or an abbreviated “administrative process”, a Vatican source said. The Pell case comes as the worldwide Catholic Church is still reeling from abuse scandals in other countries including the United States, Chile, Ireland and Germany, among others. Even though most of the abuse happened decades ago, it has left a stain on Francis’ papacy because victims and their advocates say he still has not done enough to hold accountable those bishops who enabled or covered up abuse by priests. VATICAN FINANCES Gisotti also confirmed that Pell was no longer head of the Secretariat for the Economy, where he oversaw the Vatican’s finances. Pell’s five-year term in the post expired several days ago and the pope has not yet named a successor. Pell, the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted for child sex offences, was found guilty in December of five charges related to the abuse of the 13-year-old boys while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s. Pell’s guilty verdict was revealed in Australia on Tuesday after a court suppression order was dropped. (so it could be spun the way the media wanted?) He will be sentenced on March 13. Last month, a CDF “administrative process” found Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal who served as archbishop of Washington, D.C,, guilty of sexual abuse of minors and adults. McCarrick, who resigned as cardinal last year when the accusations first surfaced and were deemed credible by U.S. Church investigators, was dismissed from the priesthood. McCarrick became the first cardinal to step down in a century and the highest-profile Catholic figure to be defrocked over sexual abuse. While McCarrick’s case began and ended in Church tribunals, the Vatican investigation of Pell unusually follows a conviction in a civil court. The Vatican procedure could choose to use information from the Australian court, Vatican sources said. One source added that it was unusual because the Vatican had announced its own investigation into Pell before the appeals case in Australia. vatican-to-open-own-investigation-into-accusations-against-pell-idUSKCN1QG1JQ
I don't believe the poor man is guilty either. Although I have to say his close association with Pope Francis made me suspicious. Francis has a foul habit of picking only top perverts for top jobs. It seems like being a pervert is some kind of qualification test you have to pass to gain his approval.. But I would find my dogs, guilty on the, 'evidence' against poor Pell. Its a frame up, right from the top and a poor one at that. Praying for Cardinal Pell. Bad enough being in jail for something you never did but being inside for something so horrible is unimaginable.
It can make you wonder if this was all planned early on.....from the Pope's advisors....as a way to remove Pell from the finance corruption investigation which happened immediately after suddenly the old, unproven Pell accusations got attention again in the fake media. When such "advisors" who want to protect their own goals are given ideas by Lucifer there is nothing that unimaginable. Remember the outcome for JPI after announcing his plans to clean up the bank there!
