Cardinal Pell

6 comments on “Cardinal Pell ”

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1. mac1 1

   13 March 2019 at 3:35 pm

   You mention Ireland, advantage, in your excellent post.

   I went to Letterfrack in Galway to visit a village where a Quaker benefactor during the Famine provided paid local work. This man Ellis built a school which was later bought by the Catholic Church and made into an Industrial School run by the Christian Brothers. Over 87 years 2819 boys attended the school which closed in 1974.

   I did not expect at all what I found.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Joseph%27s_Industrial_School,_Letterfrack

   147 boys died there. I visited their graves. They died of abuse and neglect.

   One day I shall complete the poem I began in 2014. Right now I do not have the tranquillity to finish it.
2. Observer Tokoroa 2

   13 March 2019 at 4:04 pm

   “Cardinal Pell jailed for Six Years”

   Do we know on what grounds he has been found guilty, and by which judge ?

   Too often in New Zealand persons are found innocent of Crimes they never committed. Perhaps Pell, in spite of his terseness, will turn out to be wrongly accused and wrongly imprisoned. As I understand, Two Courts, found Pell not guilty. A third Court has found Pell guilty. What would Five Courts have found ?

   What is the true method of finding full certainty in a Court of Law. ?

   Given legal certainty, my own view is that Offending against a child should result in a very serious punishment of numerous years. Not a mere handful.

   The Catholic Church should never have allowed Pedophiles to be recruited. Just as in the Education Departments of New Zealand, Pedophiles should not have been recruited.

   The Principals should be held to account for allowing failures in recruitment processes to occur.

   Finally, I see no reason why The Catholic Church needs to have schools. Matters of Religion can be taught in Religious Meetings and Discussions.
3. te reo putake 3

   13 March 2019 at 4:16 pm

   I watched the sentencing and was struck by the constant references to ‘Cardinal’ Pell. It’s rather off-putting that a convicted nonce should still have honorific added to his name.

   I suppose its possible that the judge might have been trolling the Pope by reminding Francis that Pell was as solid and vital a part of the church as St Peter’s Basilica.

   More likely that Pell is being treated with undue respect simply because the Vatican has said it will do nothing to demote him until the appeal process is complete. And, I suspect, not even then. More likely a sinecure in a monastery somewhere once the sentence is complete.

   As for the church, I reckon its tax free status should be suspended until it respects equal rights for women and confirms that respect by anointing women priests.

   In the meantime, there’s one priest whose word you can trust:
4. Stuart Munro. 4

   13 March 2019 at 4:37 pm

   Tim Minchin has a reasonable comment I thought:
5. SPC 5

   13 March 2019 at 5:05 pm

   Massimo Faggioli, said: “In my opinion, [this is] the most serious crisis in the Catholic church since the Protestant Reformation.” The issue, he added, was being used to “radically delegitimize” Francis’s papacy.

   He is referring to this.

   The cardinals of the traditionalist wing of the Church object to the cover ups being used to lay a challenge to the clerical authority tradition within the church (clericalism) – men abusing their power, and protecting each other. They blame the crisis on sexual immorality in the church and modern liberalism.

   “The plague of the homosexual agenda has been spread within the Church, promoted by organized networks and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence,” they said. “Sexual abuse is blamed on clericalism. But the first and primary fault of the clergy does not rest in the abuse of power but in having gone away from the truth of the Gospel.”The even public denial, by words and by acts, of the divine and natural law, is at the root of the evil that corrupts certain circles in the Church.”

   The Pope is emminently capable of this talk himself, but without reference to whom he is discussing in particular – those accusers who did nothing but criticise the church were “friends, cousins and relatives of the devil,” he told worshippers at the Vatican.
6. Siobhan 6

   13 March 2019 at 6:29 pm

   Reason for the light sentence…

   “Another contributing factor was Pell’s risk of reoffending, which the Judge deemed negligible. He said Pell’s age, his “otherwise good character” and the fact he has not been convicted of such an offence in the 22 years after his crime factored into his decision.

   However, he acknowledged for a second time that Pell had “shown no remorse or insight into your offending” and that there remained no explanation for it.

   Based on this, the prosecution argued there was still a limited risk of reoffending, but the judge did not accept this.

   “The lengthy period without offending since these matters supports my conclusion that you have effectively reformed and, as I have said, there are other matters, such as your advanced years, which persuade me that you are not a risk to the community,” Judge Kidd said.”

   https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12212325

   I’m not a fan of prisons…but the logic that alows white collar criminals to get lighter sentences…especially pedo’s who get lighter sentences, is completely corrupt.

   If anyone could explain how someone who has “shown no remorse or insight into your offending” be effectively reformed?? Why would you ‘reform’ when you don’t understand you have done anything wrong?
   And i’m wondering, as long as one has an “otherwise good character” (read, white collar) what can’t you get away with?

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