| Most senior Catholic cleric charged with child sex abuse convicted. Please read the article by clicking on the link, as reprinting of the copyrighted material is forbidden.
www.abc15.com/news/crime/most-senior-catholic-cleric-charged-with-child-sex-abuse-convicted
Some comments as published in December 2018:
An excerpt: Milone recalls a conversation with Pell before his departure to Australia, asking why he had not taken advantage of the immunity granted by the Vatican.
“Libero, you should know that my honor comes before everything else,” he said the cardinal answered.
Pell could have refused to return to Australia, citing diplomatic immunity. He did not. Does a guilty man do that?
All of this is why I am not willing to believe at this point that George Pell received a fair trial, or is truly guilty. Don’t get me wrong: he might have received a fair trial, and he might actually be guilty. But I am not yet prepared to believe that, without more evidence. It’s just mighty convenient that all of this happened as Cardinal Pell was getting to the bottom of financial corruption in the Vatican — which, as we know from the modern history of the Vatican finances, can involve hundreds of millions of dollars and various international institutions, including the Mafia.
The whole article in theamericanconservative.com
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An Excerpt: One other facet of this miscarriage of justice deserves investigation by enterprising reporters. Pell was brought to Rome by Pope Francis to clean up Vatican finance, a Herculean task in which he was making progress. Then, just as he was getting down to the really serious corruption, which involves hundreds of millions of euros and the shadow worlds of global finance, these abuse charges were laid, and Pell had to return to Australia to defend himself.
Was that timing sheer accident? Rome-based supporters of Pell’s reforming efforts with whom I’ve spoken think not. Just as in Harper Lee’s Maycomb, something is rotten in this business. And it isn’t the character of Cardinal George Pell.
Full Text: George Weigel about the conviction in New York Post
An Excerpt: Following a monthlong pretrial hearing in May, the court ordered Pell to stand trial on multiple charges of sexual abuse of minors, charges the cardinal consistently denied. The trial was split in two: one for the events in Melbourne in 1990s and one for the events in Ballarat in 1970s.The first trial, for the Melbourne events, began in August, but resulted in a hung jury, sources said.
One of the alleged survivors has died since the events and the other gave evidence via video link to the court. Neither has been named.
Full Text in Catholic News Service
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Yet another excerpt: Fifth, the charges against Cardinal Pell are isolated. The alleged incidents in the cathedral, and another allegation dating back to a pool party in the 1970s, are the only complaints that have emerged, through months of aggressive investigation. Is it really plausible that someone who demanded sexual favors from altar boys in the 1990s would have made no other such demands before or after? That such a brazen predator would have no other victims?
In other cases, when a prominent Catholic prelate has been accused of sexual misconduct, other charges have quickly followed. The first accusations against McCarrick, Apuron, Wesolowski, O’Brien, Groer, and others were quickly followed by cascades of other charges; once the first public complaint was lodged, other complaints proliferated. Not in this case.
Full Text in Catholic Culture
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“Most people here don’t believe the verdict,” Pentin told the Nine newspapers. “Most here believe Pell is innocent, certainly those who worked with him.”
Pentin said there was scepticism about the guilty verdict because Pell was investigating Vatican corruption and there was suspicion about the timing of the charges.
Suppression orders were lifted in Australia today that has allowed the verdict to be reported, although the judgement was handed down in December and reported by some international news outlets.
In an article for the Register, Pentin notes that after news broke in December about the verdict, a source told him, “People in court saw how flimsy the evidence was.
“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.”
Full Text in news.com.au
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Two Victorian detectives travelled to Rome after Pell agreed to respond in person to the allegations.
During the interview, Pell would hear for the first time the specific claims being made.
The 42-minute video recording of the interview was played to a jury during Pell’s first trial in Melbourne’s County Court in September last year.
The jury in that first trial was unable to reach a verdict, so the taped interview was played again, to a second jury, during a retrial in December.
www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/interviewed-in-rome-pell-called-police-claims-garbage-and-falsehood/ar-BBU5cgx
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A czego można sie spodziewać po lewicowej prasie polskiej? Tytuły typu "Bestia w sutannie", czy "Mógł zostać papieżem, zgnije w więzieniu", to "normalka".
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