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Saturday, December 15, 2018

Cardinal Pell Convicted, Details Available On Need-to-know Basis (and you don't need to know)

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Cardinal Pell Cardinal Pell

Cardinal George Pell, Australian native and Vatican finance chief, left Rome in the summer of 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne. He is the highest Vatican official yet to be tried for sex abuse.

Though Cardinal Pell has consistently professed innocence, he was reportedly found guilty on Wednesday, December 12, of molesting two choirboys in the late 1990s.

This FoxNews report includes an unnerving detail:

Local media are forbidden from publishing any news or details about the Melbourne trial due to a court-issued gag order.

One Australian courtroom observer told the Washington Post that Pell’s sentencing proceedings would begin in February and he will be tried next year on additional charges.

The Vatican did not address the explosive case, but did announce the removal of Pell, 77.

REMNANT COMMENT: Okay, so here we go. Is he guilty? Who knows!  But, my goodness, how refreshing to see Francis leap into action on this one, like some caped crusader Super Pope. He positively flew out of the Pope Cave on this one.

Strange, though, since Archbishop Vigano still remains in hiding, his credible charges of far greater crimes—against far worse perpetrators, even involving the Pope himself--having been thus far ignored by the Vatican. But Cardinal Pell--the comparative conservative and sometimes critic of Pope Francis? Well, now that's a different story. Rack him! 

Strange days indeed!  

Hard to know the truth of the matter, of course, and with a media blackout going on down in Melbourne, we may never know. 

Click the image to preview the December 15th Print/E-Edition of The Remnant Newspaper!
staged 8

I do hope folks will begin to see, however, why The Remnant is trying to tap the brakes on what can only be described as classic lynch-mob tactics.  Before they're done, the Christophobes will use this scandal to take down all sorts of priests and bishops—whether they’re guilty or not.

If your good priest is straight, holy and not a pervert, don't get too used to having him around.  In a few years, nobody will know the difference between your priest and pervert predators... and nobody will care. He is, after all, a Catholic priest

And Cardinal Pell? I don't know. Pray for him. I never quite forgave him for what he said to Richard Dawkins on evolution (minute 10:12) but I'd like to have a few more facts before I start pelting stones at him.

Everyone is deserving of due process, even those accused of horrific offenses like these . . . maybe especially them.  Let's make sure we insist on that. The future of good priests everywhere depends on it.  In fact, the very survival of the Catholic Church herself--pure and inviolate--depends on it. 

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Last modified on Saturday, December 15, 2018
Michael J. Matt | Editor

Michael J. Matt has been an editor of The Remnant since 1990. Since 1994, he has been the newspaper's editor. A graduate of Christendom College, Michael Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Church and the modern world. He is the host of The Remnant Underground and Remnant TV's The Remnant Forum. He's been U.S. Coordinator for Notre Dame de Chrétienté in Paris--the organization responsible for the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres, France--since 2000.  Mr. Matt has led the U.S. contingent on the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the last 24 years. He is a lecturer for the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. He is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly delivers addresses and conferences to Catholic groups about the Mass, home-schooling, and the culture question. Together with his wife, Carol Lynn and their seven children, Mr. Matt currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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