Posted on 03/01/2019 12:06:15 PM PST by ebb tide
Has it occurred to anyone else debating the perverse verdict rendered against Cardinal George Pell, which convicted him of “historic sexual abuse,” that the cardinal did not have to return to his native Australia to face trial? As a member of the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and a Vatican official, Pell holds a Vatican diplomatic passport and citizenship of Vatican City State. Were he guilty, he could have stayed put in the extraterritorial safety of the Vatican enclave, untouchable by the Australian authorities. But because Cardinal Pell knows he is innocent, he was determined to go home to defend his honor—and, in a broader sense, to defend his decades of work rebuilding the Catholic Church in Australia, the living parts of which owe a great deal to his leadership and courage.
Cardinal Pell and I have been friends for over fifty years, and in the past two and a half decades of that friendship I have been appalled at the calumnies to which he has been subjected, in both the hyper-secularist Australian media and in Church circles determined to hang on to their dreams of post–Vatican II revolution.
One memorable attack on him came shortly after I had stayed at his Melbourne home in late 2000: The author claimed that then-Archbishop Pell was enamored of liturgical finery and that his house was filled with richly brocaded vestments and other expensive ecclesiastical bric-a-brac. I was pleased to be able to respond in print that, having just spent a few days in the house, I could report seeing nary a single vestment, brocaded or otherwise—but that I had seen books everywhere, as well as the most recent issues of every opinion journal of consequence in the Anglosphere, left, right, and center.
Some time after that, the first charge of sexual abuse was made against Cardinal Pell, who had by this point been appointed archbishop of Sydney by Pope St. John Paul II. Following the procedures he had first established in Melbourne and then brought to the capital of New South Wales, Pell voluntarily stepped aside from office until a judicial inquiry, led by a former Australian Supreme Court justice, cleared him completely. When the charge was first aired, Pell was urged by an overwrought, senior Vatican official to go on offense and publicly destroy his accuser. He declined that advice, wryly remarking to me at the time that he had informed the Curialist that, among those of his Irish Catholic tribe Down Under, “We take our religion from Rome and our politics from home.”
George Pell’s faith in Australian justice was vindicated on that occasion. But now that faith—and the Australian justice system—are being tried again, and sorely tried at that. For it is not George Pell who is on trial now, as his conviction is appealed and the cardinal, with the serenity and equanimity with which he has faced this latest assault on his character, spends time in a Melbourne jail: “on retreat,” as he’s put it to friends.
As I have shown here, the case against Pell has been fraught with implausibility and worse from the outset. The Victoria police went on a fishing expedition against Pell, a year before any complaint had been received from an alleged victim. The committal hearing, which dismissed many of the charges the police brought, ought to have dismissed all of them; but amidst a public atmosphere that bears comparison to Salem, Massachusetts, during the witchcraft hysteria of the seventeenth century, a criminal trial was decreed. At that trial, and after Pell’s defense demonstrated that it was physically impossible for the crimes with which he was charged to have occurred, a jury voted 10-2 to acquit him; but that meant a hung jury (several of whose members wept as their verdict was read), and the Crown decided to proceed with a re-trial. At the re-trial, Pell’s defense team demonstrated that ten implausible and improbable things would have had to have happened simultaneously for him to be guilty of the charges; there was no corroboration of the complainant’s charges; there was ample refutation of the very possibility of the vile acts with which Pell was charged having occurred by others present that day; the police were shown to have been grossly negligent in investigating the alleged crime scene—and yet the second jury voted 12-0 for conviction, after what can reasonably be supposed to have been their refusal to take seriously the trial judge’s instructions on how evidence was to be construed.
And when the media-suppression order that had banned Australian press coverage of these trials was lifted and the second verdict was revealed earlier this week, a Niagara of calumnies was poured over Cardinal Pell from both political and media circles, despite the fact that a few brave Australian journalists and Fr. Frank Brennan (a prominent Australian Jesuit on the other end of the ecclesiastical spectrum from Pell) pointed out the gross injustice of his conviction.
Something is very, very wrong here.
No one doubts that the Catholic Church in Australia was terribly negligent in dealing with clerical sexual abuse for decades. No one who actually knows the history of Catholic reform in Australia can doubt that the man who turned that pattern of denial and cover-up around was George Pell—who also had the honesty and courage to apply the stringent standards he imposed on others accused of abuse to himself. If Pell is made the scapegoat for the very failures he worked hard to correct, the gravest question must be raised about Australian public opinion’s capacity for reason and elementary fairness—and about the blood lust of an aggressively secular media, determined to settle political and ecclesiastical scores with one of the country’s most internationally prominent citizens, who dared to challenge “progressive” shibboleths on everything ranging from the interpretation of Vatican II to abortion, climate change, and the war against jihadism.
As the facts finally come out, reasonable people around the world are now coming to see that at virtually every point in this tawdry process, the justice system has failed Cardinal Pell, who freely returned home to defend himself. That system has also failed Australia. The cardinal’s attorneys will now appeal; the appellate panel of judges can, and should, agree with the appeal’s claim that the second jury could not have rationally reached a guilty verdict, given the complete refutation of the prosecution’s case by the defense. This was, in the technical terminology of Australian law, an “unsafe verdict.” But the verdict was not “unsafe” for Cardinal George Pell alone.
If it is not reversed on appeal, that false verdict will constitute a new indictment: the indictment of a legal system that could not bring itself to render justice in the face of public hysteria, political vendetta, and media aggression. Which means that Australia—or at least the State of Victoria, where this travesty has played out—is a place where no one is safe, citizen or visitor.
Ping
When not in court, the burden of proof lies with the Catholic Church, which has shown itself to be persistent protectors of homosexual predators. Including and especially, ‘pope-dude’ comrade Frankie.
https://twitter.com/EdwardPentin/status/1101236920275947520
View police video of police interrogation of Pell. This video was not allowed to be viewed in court.
Warning: graphic accusations.
Yeah, that’s right Miltie: ignore the facts.
When the pope-dude takes years and wholescale scandal having re-integrated the known perp McCarrick, I think I’m gonna simplify my life and assume the boofoo-ers are in full control of the organization. Until they actually clean house, it’s dirty. Wall to wall.
Pell may prove innocent in a different court a different day. But the Catholic Church has long since lost the presumption of innocence in the court of PUBLIC OPINION.
Think of Pell as a scapegoat.
Then think of Frankie as a Judas Goat - (from Wikipedia) A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.
Interesting. Frankie is sending someone out to take the blame for him and his friends, and also at the same time doing stuff that he thinks will spare himself any misery.
Just wow.
ViganO!
ViganO!
ViganO!
ViganO!
“Cardinal Pell and I have been friends for over fifty years”
Well, this article will be so much more balanced and fair than a jury trial with rules of evidence, a judge and opposing legal teams.
< / Barf >
The world desperately needs a cleaned Catholic Church.
I see NO evidence pope-dude prefers cleansing to coverup.
Pope-dude continuing his leftist commie anti-Historic-Church ways just today!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3731178/posts
In apparent shot at Trump, Pope says 'builders of walls' sow fear and divide
Pope-dude's wall:
Fr. James Martin: Pope Appoints ‘Gay-Friendly’ Bishops, Cardinals to Change Church on LGBT
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3703901/posts
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6348725/Controversial-filmmaker-Michael-Moore-claims-Pope-Francis-told-capitalism-sin.html
Pell can appeal.
The Catholic Church is currently dirty, on massive evidence before everyone’s eyes.
Especially with a gay b*** f***ing protecting communist leader.
I am PRO-CATHOLIC. I see the Church’s purple mafia, and especially frankie, as purposefully and continuously destroying one of the most useful institutions the world has ever had.
I’m done now. Going shopping for Shabbat. ;-)
Party on!
Sorry, I'm not seeing it.
It would appear that Australian justice is a bit sloppy. Pell had no real chance to offer a defense. It is a pity they were so sloppy. If Pell was guilty of predatory behavior and it was clearly proven beyond a reasonable doubt, then he belongs in prison as does every single predatory vile homosexual that masquerades as a priest. however reasonable people still demand due process and a fair trial. At this point since the Church has sheltered, protected and even promoted these vile homosexual predators, it is up to civil authorities to arrest and imprison the guilty, but only the guilty.
At the top of the timeline was an anonymous tipoff phoned in to a Melbourne tabloid paper, The Herald Sun. Another "wrap smear" we here about had kicked off.
After some radio talk show followup from -presumably- employees of the tabloid speaking anonymously or the "wrap smearers" directly, Melbourne detectives were given instruction (from who?) to go investigate the crime and they interviewed a number of the local victim/abuse therapists etc gathering gossip and names I gather. That was 2014, when Pell was in the Vatican and presumably aware of the Red Binder authored by Vigano and perhaps rocking the boat like Vigano. The St Gallen mafia pull strings everywhere. Two detectives were sent to interview Pell in the Vatican and he co-operated. When Pell go that phone call from the detectives he would have assumed the "party on dude!" faction in the Vatican and the I.O.R. had all the power. The ball began rolling. I think Pell was installed in finance and admin of the Vatican (?).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++ Off topic.
Personally, I have never met or heard/seen Pell. I am not Catholic, I am Church of Christ. My stepfather was RC for 50 years but is no longer. He attends Methodist with my mother. I have had to politely deny my attachment to RC on some occasions when meeting people: some naturally conclude I am RC just on the stats (because I have been blessed with 5 children and married 37 years so far) :)
I have been close to victims of pedastry. A mother and father believing their boys and asking local detectives why they would not investigate a local politician (formerly Highschool career). 4 years of therapy etc and no investigation of the local version of the Democrats in a democrat stronghold. But the truth came out.
It was a very notorious case 15 years ago. The perp was in a ring, a network: dozens of victims were documented. Many had died. A ring of three politicians including a Mayor. There was a Royal Commission held and the stories poured forth. From all over actually.
Turned out perps in the law profession (many go into politics or sit as Judges) were the worst: "Old School Tie", political protections and masonic "deep state" all played a part. A local conservative federal candidate I had approached advised me "not to go there" - conspiracy stories are rarely true he said.
Turned out that the abusers, older gay lawyers, many in senior years and with an eye to protect their ass ets, ply the victims with heroin or similar drugs to kill the victim's plausibility if they ever try to testify against them. These perps know the courtroom and the rules of the game and play accordingly. Most if not all victims were highschool age boys. And the law knows boys do things like take drugs, of course. And they may overdose, or do time in prison (more sexual abuse) or rack up frequent flyer points with the Mental Health industry. Game, set, match.
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