02 March 2016, The Tablet

Where does the royal commission leave Cardinal Pell in the Vatican?


The Pope will not want to see the cardinal go before his work reforming the Holy See's finances is done

 
In Australia, Cardinal Pell is public enemy number one. His evidence on Tuesday to the country’s abuse inquiry, when he said the case of abusive priest Gerard Ridsdale didn’t particularly interest him, has led to a vilification in the press.  The news was on the front page of at least two newspapers with the Herald Sun carrying a picture of the cardinal with the headline “see no evil, hear no evil, stop no evil” while the Courier Mail had “not my cross”. And there is far, far worse on social media. In the Vatican, however, things are not seen in such black and white terms.  One thing is for sure though: the cardinal’s evidence to the commission into institutional responses to the abuse of children is being monitored closely by senior

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Comment by: Jim Scott
Posted: 07/03/2016 09:11:56
Given the absolute reliance which Pope Francis has shown on Cardinal Pell from the very outset of his pontificate as a major player in the newly created Council of Cardinals and as the man best fitted to clean the Vatican Bank’s augean stables, not to mention the imminence of the Cardinal’s statutory resignation at 75, it strikes me that nothing short of a scandalously complacent and manifestly inadequate performance in the witness box in Rome for the Australian Royal Commission is sufficient to bring about the Cardinal’s sacking.

Which is exactly what we saw on-line during 4 nights of excruciatingly evasive near monosyllabic testimony.

Testimony which made Cardinal Pell’s many many years of study at the most prestigious of institutions both church sponsored and lay, at Monash, in Rome and at Oxbridge (both branches), culminating in a D Phil from Oxford University entitled “The exercise of authority in early Christianity...”seem like so much money down the drain. Especially given how tenuous apparently was the cardinal’s grasp of the natural moral law obligation on adults, irrespective of the presence or the absence of “hierarchical authority,” to move heaven and earth to protect children from any harm whatsoever. Still less from vile sexual abuse.
Comment by: MargaretC
Posted: 03/03/2016 15:26:41
Are you saying, Christopher Lamb, that the pope is more interested in sorting the finances than taking responsibility for the Church's foray into paedophilia and living with the consequences, one of which should be giving Pell the boot, and doing so now?
What sort of message is that?