For a final day the cardinal gives evidence to an Australian hearing via videolink. nowadays he faces questioning from lawyers representing victims 7.36pm GMTIf Pope Francis wants to retain his reputation as the people’s Pope he must force Cardinal George Pell to either resign or retire,writes Joanne McCarthy for Fairfax. Read here full piece here, and in the meantime here’s an excerpt;Cardinal George Pell has to resign. Before the week is out, and on the back of his evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse,the cardinal must depart, and Pope Francis must be involved.
If not, or the Catholic Church in Australia is going to bleed numbers indefinitely. The Pope’s statements approximately child sexual abuse will be seen as nothing but more words from a church whose standing has been trashed on the issue,and shockingly so over the past three days. 7.36pm GMTGuardian writer David Marr has analysed yesterday’s evidence. In this piece, he writes; When Pell began to sketch the outlines of a grubby conspiracy by the Catholic Education Office to sustain him in the dark in order to protect the inaction of Little, or both the chair of the commission,Peter McClellan, and counsel assisting Gail Furness SC expressed frank disbelief.
Pell denied concocting his evidence to deflect blame from his own inaction. He insisted he had done his duty – his whole duty – by taking the Searson case to Little. “I was not obliged to enact more than that.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com