Vatican cardinal charged with child molestation

Associated Press (ap.org); Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sure, we could have done it sooner, decades ago. But we waited. He's our sacrifice (AP).

Australian police charge Vatican cardinal with sex offenses

McQueary on Sandusky

SYDNEY, Australia - Australian police charged a top Vatican cardinal on Thursday [ June 29, 2017] with multiple counts of historical sexual assault offenses, a stunning decision certain to rock the highest levels of the Holy See [the small country that is the Vatican].

God is good; Catholic priests not so much.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' chief financial adviser and Australia's most senior Catholic, is the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church's long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Pell said he would return to Australia to fight the charges.

 

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police have summonsed Cardinal Pell to appear in an Australian court to face multiple charges of "historical sexual assault offenses," meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago.

Patton said there are multiple complainants against Pell but gave no other details on the allegations against the cardinal. Pell was ordered to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 [2017].

 

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney issued a statement on behalf of Pell, saying the 76-year-old cardinal "strenuously denied all allegations" and would return to Australia to clear his name. "He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously," the statement said.

 

Patton told reporters in Melbourne that none of the allegations against Pell had been tested in any court, adding: "Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process."

[Some of those boys were asking for it; they are little teases in their altar boy robes?]

 

The charges are a new and serious blow to Pope Francis, who has already suffered several credibility setbacks in his promised "zero tolerance" policy about sex abuse [but he still allows child rape].

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. His actions as archbishop came under intense scrutiny in recent years by a government-authorized investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to the sexual abuse of children.

Join the Boy Scouts; have a gay old time!

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse -- the nation's highest form of inquiry -- has found shocking levels of abuse in Australia's Catholic Church, revealing earlier this year that 7 percent of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children over the past several decades.

 

We all do it. Only a few of us get charged.

Last year, Cardinal Pell acknowledged during his testimony to the commission that the Catholic Church had made "enormous mistakes" in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests over centuries. He conceded that he, too, had erred by often believing the priests over victims who alleged abuse. And he vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued church abuse victims... More

• UPDATE: What's The Latest on this Catholic child molester, a top official at the Vatican, a cardinal, a personal co-worker of the Pope?