In a statement from the Vatican, Cardinal George Pell has said the Church’s failure to deal with Melbourne’s paedophile priests was shameful. Cardinal Pell was responding to a television interview of abuse victim Julie Stewart, where she was critical of the cardinal’s testimony to a previous Victorian inquiry. Ms Stewart was abused in the confessional Read more
Lawyers for Cardinal George Pell will cross-examine victims who allege he was complicit in a cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. The move comes despite a commitment by the Australian Catholic Church not to subject victims of child sexual abuse to gruelling cross-examination. Cardinal Pell denies the allegations against him concerning the period when he was Read more
Cardinal George Pell is one of 15 prelates who will plan and organise the next synod of bishops. He was one of 12 prelates elected at the recent 2015 synod. Pope Francis added three others to the “synod’s ordinary council”. While the names of the 12 elected members had been circulating for some time, the Read more
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has launched a stinging attack on Cardinal George Pell’s views on climate change. In a lecture, Mr Rudd said the cardinal needed an “ecological conversion”. This was a phrase used by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’. Mr Rudd said the Cardinal’s view that the Church should stay out of Read more
Cardinal George Pell has said the final report of the recent synod did not make an opening for the divorced and civilly remarried to receive Communion. Cardinal Pell said the text of the report has been “significantly misunderstood” and has no direct reference to the matter. Cardinal Pell said that “the discernment that is encouraged Read more
Cardinal George Pell has said that the first task of bishops is not to be theologians but to teach, explain, and defend the Church’s faith and morals. The Australian cardinal delivered his intervention at the synod on the family in Rome last week, and an extended form of it was posted to the Catholic Herald’s website. Read more
A Catholic friend of mine who spent his professional life as a journalist at what was the then rather WASPISH Melbourne Age told me in the 1980s that two sports dominated that paper’s pages – Australian Rules football and Catholic fights. Cardinal George Pell should have stuck to playing Ozzie Rules. In that game, shirt Read more
The Church’s Melbourne Response for helping abuse survivors discouraged victims from contacting police, a royal commission case study has found. Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse issued a case study this week into the programme instituted by then-Archbishop George Pell in 1996. The study identified 12 systemic issues. One issue was Read more
A retired bishop has said Cardinal George Pell destroyed the unity of the Australian Church’s response to child sex abuse. Bishop Geoffrey Robinson said this during testimony to the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney on Monday. Bishop Robinson worked with other bishops on an Australia-wide clergy response to abuse, Read more