Cardinal George Pell has been charged with multiple counts of historical child sexual assault offences.

Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton from Victoria Police said the Vatican-based Cardinal was required to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.

He said the charges were served on Cadinal Pell's legal representatives in Melbourne, and that they involved multiple complainants.

felltoearth wrote:So is he management or truck driver in this case?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_ ... appearance

A church report contains allegations about George Pell abusing an altar boy in 1961-62
http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/36

Cardinal Pell will re-appear in Australia "if possible"
According to legal experts, Australian civil authorities cannot force Cardinal George Pell to re-visit Australia to be questioned on certain matters relating to church sexual abuse. As Pell is now a senior official in the Vatican State, this can give him diplomatic immunity, protecting him from being forced back to Australia. However, it is possible that he might choose to return to Australia voluntarily.
http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/

Pell announces a "health problem"
On Friday 11 December (a day before Pell was scheduled to fly from Rome to Melbourne), it was announced at the Royal Commission public hearing that Cardinal Pell has decided that, for "health" reasons, he does not wish to make another plane trip from Rome to Melbourne. Pell sent the Royal Commission a medical certificate signed by a medical specialist who works for the Vatican. The medical certificate didn't say that Pell couldn't travel; it merely indicated that that it would be better for Pell if he did the evidence by video-link from Rome.

Pell still missing in 2016 and 2017
On 5 February 2016, the Royal Commission held a brief procedure (a "directions hearing") to ascertain whether Cardinal Pell is prepared to visit Australia to appear in person when the public hearing (on the Melbourne and Ballarat case studies) resumes later in February 2016. The answer from Pell's lawyers was: "No, Your Honour, he is still not well enough to visit Australia".
http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/391

Cardinal George Pell is a frequent flyer, travelling in comfort in Business Class. During his years as Archbishop of Sydney, he would regularly make the flight to Rome so as to keep an eye on career opportunities at the Vatican. Now he has become the third most important person in the Vatican, possessing a Vatican passport. He still travels from his Rome headquarters to other countries. For example, during 2016 and 2017, he has made a number of air trips from Rome to London (for example, most recently, in mid-May 2017). But he is reluctant now to make a public appearance in Australia.

Although George Pell was "not well enough" to re-appear in Australia during 2016, his health did not prevent him from travelling from Rome to other countries around this time.

In November 2015, just weeks before he was due to attend the Royal Commission in Melbourne, Pell travelled to France (to visit World War One battlefields), according to a report published later in the Melbourne Herald Sun. Evidently his health did not prevent him from making this trip.

A church organisation (the New Liturgical Movement) reported, on 26 May 2016, that Cardinal George Pell conducted a Pontifical High Mass at the London Oratory for the Feast of St Philip Neri.

Dan Hitchens, deputy editor of the Catholic Herald (U.K.), reported on 29 Nov 2016 that Cardinal Pell gave a talk at St Patrick’s Church, London, about contemporary Catholicism.

On 13 May 2017, the Sydney Morning Herald website (and other media outlets) published a photograph of Cardinal Pell arriving at London's Heathrow airport. The photo was taken by an Australian journalist (Zoie Jones), who is based in Rome. Evidently this journalist happened to notice Cardinal Pell walking through the airport, with his luggage, after the plane landed.

Pell doesn't seem to have "health problems" in France or other countries, only in Australia.
http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/node/391

Nicko wrote:The thing is, will these charges make Pell enough of a liability for the RCC that they defrock him? Or, at the very least, remove him from his current position?

I can't imagine Pell is in Pope Francis' good books at the moment. This pope seems to want to actually address - or at least be seen to be addressing - the RCC's problems in this department.

In late 2012, the Australian federal government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In a televised media conference, Pell welcomed the royal commission. His comments received significant media attention when he stated that priests who hear confessions from people who commit child sex abuse must remain bound by the Seal of Confession, commenting:[80][81][82][83]

If that is done outside the confessional (it can be reported to the police).... (But) the Seal of Confession is inviolable. If the priest knows beforehand about such a situation, the priest should refuse to hear the confession... That would be my advice, and I would never hear the confession of a priest who is suspected of such a thing.

In a 2012 address, Pell stated that he was deeply sorry for the hurt that had occurred, describing it as completely contrary to Christ's teachings.[84][85][86]

In 2014, the royal commission was told how lawyers representing Pell and the Archdiocese of Sydney incurred costs of A$1.5 million against a victim of sexual abuse. The lawyers, acting on the church's instructions, "vigorously" fought John Ellis through the courts despite warnings of his "fragile psychological state". The resulting NSW Court of Appeal ruling established the controversial "Ellis Defence", which confirmed that the church could not be sued as a legal entity and held liable for abuse committed by a priest in such matters. Eventually, Ellis received $568,000 from the church. In a statement to the royal commission in March 2014, Pell reversed his earlier stance in support of the defence, saying: "My own view is that the Church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pe ... xual_Abuse

I'm With Stupid wrote:
This will be a real test of Pope Francis, because he's done all the right things and made all the right noises so far.

lyingcheat wrote:

I'm With Stupid wrote:
This will be a real test of Pope Francis, because he's done all the right things and made all the right noises so far.

They used to be able to do whatever they liked, but now they have to be a lot more careful.

If anything at all happens to Pell it will be retirement to luxury, or perhaps dominion over a quiet but prestigious vatican chapel out of public view and reach.

Shrunk wrote:The tide has really turned on this, and he is at the mercy of the secular courts. If there is the evidence to convict him, he will spend his last days in prison.

A week after the BEST team released their findings, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, delivered a lecture at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think-tank in London that aggressively pushes climate change denialism.

Although delivered by an extremely adept and influential theologian, the lecture had precious little theological content. Instead, the central part of the lecture was concerned solely with climate science.

The Cardinal criticised those who lazily defer to the consensus of scientists and instead set about himself to explain climate science, leaving the impression that the Cardinal sees himself as a modern Galileo fighting against the scientific establishment.

The Cardinal said that we must examine the "primary evidence" ourselves because although "much is opaque to non-specialists ... persistent enquiry and study can produce useful clarifications." Yet as climate science blogger Tim Lambert has pointed out, what the Cardinal means by "primary evidence" is the work of commentators such as Christopher Monckton (who has no scientific training)....

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles ... 362551.htm

Shrunk wrote:Let's not forget these details about this truly hideous man:

In late 2012, the Australian federal government announced the establishment of a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In a televised media conference, Pell welcomed the royal commission. His comments received significant media attention when he stated that priests who hear confessions from people who commit child sex abuse must remain bound by the Seal of Confession, commenting:[80][81][82][83]

If that is done outside the confessional (it can be reported to the police).... (But) the Seal of Confession is inviolable. If the priest knows beforehand about such a situation, the priest should refuse to hear the confession... That would be my advice, and I would never hear the confession of a priest who is suspected of such a thing.

In a 2012 address, Pell stated that he was deeply sorry for the hurt that had occurred, describing it as completely contrary to Christ's teachings.[84][85][86]

In 2014, the royal commission was told how lawyers representing Pell and the Archdiocese of Sydney incurred costs of A$1.5 million against a victim of sexual abuse. The lawyers, acting on the church's instructions, "vigorously" fought John Ellis through the courts despite warnings of his "fragile psychological state". The resulting NSW Court of Appeal ruling established the controversial "Ellis Defence", which confirmed that the church could not be sued as a legal entity and held liable for abuse committed by a priest in such matters. Eventually, Ellis received $568,000 from the church. In a statement to the royal commission in March 2014, Pell reversed his earlier stance in support of the defence, saying: "My own view is that the Church in Australia should be able to be sued in cases of this kind."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pe ... xual_Abuse