De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

What a terribly sad start to 2023 it has been with the death of Pope Benedict XVI swiftly followed by the sad news last night that George Cardinal Pell had died as a result of complications after a hip replacement. He was 81. Pell is one of only two cardinals I have met so far in my life and the only one I have had the honour of sharing a pint of beer or two with. Compared with a lot of the people I have encountered in similar situations; Pell was incredibly normal and relaxed. He was every inch a priest but struck me as someone who was honest and straightforward, deeply committed to his faith and comfortable and competent defending it. He exuded confidence, the kind of quiet confidence that comes from Christ. His eyes sparkled with intelligence and interest, he was engaging and articulate and I wanted to be on his side. On the occasion of our meeting, back in 2014, Cardinal Pell provided an excellent example of the principle perhaps best embodied in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI: ...

  Damian Thompson is in Rome and has secured an interview with Cardinal Pell. It is well worth a listen: As always, the Cardinal does a great job of clearly giving his opinion while being loyal and faithful to the Pope. On the Vatican/ China deal, Pell, the former Vatican Prefect for the Economy, states: 'I know high-up people in the Vatican are very dissatisfied with the way things are going,' The Cardinal uses this example to show how there is a lack of transparency in the Bergoglian Vatican: 'The agreement is there to try to get a bit of space for the Catholics. Obviously that's praiseworthy. [But] I don't think we've gained anything. The persecutions seem to be continuing. In some places they've got worse.' Nobody 'outside a small circle' knows the details of the agreement, 'which seems to me to be quite irregular.' Speaking on the weirdness of the synod, Pell remarks that there is a strange disconnect between Pope Francis' ow...

The National Catholic Register  holds this interesting interview with Cardinal Pell: During a visit this month to St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, Cardinal Pell spoke with Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond about the spiritual impact of incarceration, his decision to forgive his accuser and the Vatican financial corruption trial that may be linked to his own case. You left your position as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy to stand trial in Australia, suspending your campaign to reform the Vatican’s financial system. Later, you learned that significant sums of money were transferred to Australia around the time of your arraignment in 2017. Are you confident that these allegations will come up in the Vatican trial? I’m not confident of anything with the Vatican trial. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not even entirely sure that it will go ahead. It might fail for legal reasons. There’s no doubt that 2,300,000 [Australian dollars] w...

While George Cardinal Pell is confined to a prison cell, convicted by charges in a case against him which was not and could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt , the extraordinary case of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta just gets more incredible. Zanchetta was a close associate of Pope Francis before he was elected Pope in 2013: in fact he was executive undersecretary of the Argentine episcopal conference which, at the time, was headed by none other than Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) himself. Zanchetta was so close to the Pope that he was one of the very first Argentines whom Francis promoted to bishop, on his own initiative and bypassing all canonical procedure, on July 23, 2013. Now under investigation for allegations of abuse, Zanchetta has once again been allowed by a judge to travel to Rome, Crux reports , despite the fact that the Vatican City State and Argentina have no extradition agreement. What is the justification for this? The Vatican has apparently t...

The news is breaking this morning that Cardinal Pell's appeal against conviction for historical child abuse has been dismissed on a 2-1 majority. He is to remain in prison and will not be eligible for parole for over 3 years. This is the judgement in full: Basically it boils down to this: The appeal judges summed up what their verdict pivoted on: the complainant seemed genuine, and the defence's evidence that the charges were implausible was dismissed on the grounds it "may mislead or confuse the jury"... — Stat Crux (@Stat_Crux_) August 21, 2019 So the evidence was in danger of leading the jury to dismiss the case against Pell, and this was bad because...All I can think is because they want Pell convicted. Can you think of an alternative scenario? one person's word against twenty-seven - that one person's testimony a replica of a US case reported in Rolling Stone? When deceased 2nd victim said it never happened? Mob-hate can...

Given the current anti-religious climate, it is well worth investing a few minutes listening to this Holy Smoke Podcast which looks at the disturbing  conviction here in Britain of Carl Beech , for inventing a non-existent Westminster sex ring in which VIPs supposedly raped and murdered children. He found a disgracefully gullible audience in the Metropolitan Police. Beech’s serial lies were designed to destroy the lives or posthumous reputations of Lord Bramall, former head of the British Army, Sir Edward Heath, former PM, Lord Brittan, former home secretary, ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor and Lord Janner, the late Labour politician. Beech has been jailed for 18 years. Journalist Catherine Lafferty, who was in court for his trial, talks to Thompson about the troubling parallels with the conviction of Cardinal Pell , former head of the Vatican finances, for child rape. This is legally sensitive territory – Pell is appealing against his the unanimous verdict of a Melbourne jury ...

For those who consider Cardinal Pell guilty as sentenced and wonder why some Catholics (quite a lot of Catholics) are sticking up for a convicted child abuser, it might be worth watching this report. Serious questions about Cardinal Pell's conviction are raised by Peta Credlin in Australia who notes the Cardinal's innovations to deal with abuse and the zero tolerance policies he himself put in place. She also articulates the fact that what made Pell hated was his adherence to orthodox Catholic teaching in an environment which is now rabidly anti-religious. Credlin says she has had to confront the reality that either the Church or the law is wrong in this instance...and it looks like the it's law because there is a very difference standard applied despite the fact that Catholic schools, hospitals and charities have undoubtedly done more good than harm. EWTN also aired the analysis below by John Macaulay, a former altar server for Cardinal Pell at the Cathedral...

Edward Pentin reports that Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has spoken out regarding Cardinal Pell's conviction saying allegations that led to Pell’s conviction are “absolutely unbelievable” and “without proof,”. Cardinal Müller also said the conviction is “absolutely against all reason and justice” and resembles an understanding of justice going back to the time of King Henry VIII. “Like everyone else, I cannot see the culpability,” Cardinal Müller told the National Catholic Register March 4. As former prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019 and effectively the Vatican’s treasury minister, Cardinal Pell was the third most senior figure in the Vatican. He is the most senior Church figure to have ever been convicted for sexual abuse. “Nobody witnessed it,” Cardinal Müller noted, and said that he could not believe it could happen with “all the other persons” probably present after Mass. The German ca...

There's a lot of news surrounding the Cardinal Pell case. I've had a lot of feed back from my post yesterday and I will try and update readers as I find out important news. Journalist Edward Pentin has shared this important video of Cardinal George Pell being interviewed by police before his trial, during which the allegations a jury later found him guilty of are put to him. This should be seen during his appeal hearing if it hasn’t been seen already. The allegations against Cardinal Pell are clearly absurd as this video demonstrates. The Cardinal is clearly absolutely confident that the inherent absurdity will be on display for all to see in court. How then did he come to be convicted? This video exposes Victoria police as having conducted a malicious prosecution against Cardinal Pell, they asked victims to come forward in 2015 . An investigation looking for a crime! *WARNING* Some explicit content — viewer discretion advised. The Daily Mail has an a...

I honestly feel desperately sad for Cardinal George Pell as the news breaks that the 77-year-old will be held at maximum security prison until his March 13 sentencing on five convictions of sexually abusing minors, according to the  Guardian . This despite the very real prospect that his convictions will be overturned on appeal, according to experts , because the jury delivered a verdict that was not supported by the evidence. The Jesuit America Magazine reported that Pope Francis has reversed his earlier position and opened an investigation into allegations against Pell. The decision was made by Pope Francis given Pell’s high standing, apparently. As you probably know well by now, dear reader, I am not one to hold back when it comes to prelates who teach error or men who abuse anyone - I abhor it. I can't really see what could be worse; especially in a Catholic context. It is a crime against the innocence which Christ calls us to emulate ( Mt 18:3 ). It is the ...

Yesterday Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, spoke out about Cardinal Pell: The news of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on historical child sexual abuse charges has shocked many across Australia and around the world, including the Catholic Bishops of Australia. The Bishops agree that everyone should be equal under the law, and we respect the Australian legal system. The same legal system that delivered the verdict will consider the appeal that the Cardinal’s legal team has lodged. Our hope, at all times, is that through this process, justice will be served. In the meantime, we pray for all those who have been abused and their loved ones, and we commit ourselves anew to doing everything possible to ensure that the Church is a safe place for all, especially the young and the vulnerable. This Archbishop delivered the homily at Mass closing the Meeting on “The Protection of Minors in the Church” pledging to make the ...

Thank God for Cardinal Pell! In this interview he gave yesterday we learn a number of things I think. We learn that the 13 Cardinals did indeed have enough concern about the potential plot to attempt to change doctrine that they wrote to the Holy Father about it. We also learn that they were equally concerned about what has been referred to as "Synod Rigging" or the "deck stacking", especially at the last meeting. Divorced and remarried is a small part of the Synod according to the Cardinal, and he doesn't even mention homosexuality, which makes one wonder about Fr. Rosica's portrayal of the discussions?!? It would appear that there is enough concern that whatever the Pope concludes and delivers in the final document on the Synod will bear "controversial issues" that may obscure the clarity of Church teaching for Cardinal Pell to mention it, although he says he will have access to the document and will be able to vote on whether it accurately...

Breaking news from The Catholic Herald Cardinal Pell is at it again, teaching the Catholic faith, holding true to the deposit, taking back out social capital! Thank God for him! The cardinal said the culture wars are entering a new phase which can only be fought by lay people The Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy has said that the outcome of May’s same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland and the decision of the US Supreme Court on the same issue clearly show the extent to which Western society is abandoning many of its Christian legal foundations. In his address at the Fota VIII International Liturgy Conference in Cork, Cardinal George Pell called the Irish referendum “a victory for John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism.” He told the conference delegates and speakers that the so-called culture wars “are entering a new phase of political struggle which can only be fought by lay people.” Speaking about the importance of recovering the mission of the laity and drawing f...

270 miles and 41/2 hours ago I was in Buckfast Abbey in Devon. I was deeply honoured to have been invited to the Foundation Celebrations for The School of the Annunciation by Dr. Caroline Farey, Director of Studies at the School, which was merely an idea just twelve months ago. It is difficult to look at the events of the last twelve months and not see the hand of God at work. After the disappointment and pain of the fracture at Maryvale, Petroc and Caroline had no idea what they were going to do. Today, I witnessed the birth of a new, exciting venture, designed to provide a higher education institution which will present an enormous variety of high quality courses that will help people deepen their faith and partake in the work of the New Evangelisation. Rather than some clandestine, divisive venture, The School of the Annunciation is a living, working, embodiment of the tri-fold sources of Revelation: Scripture, Tradition, and The Magisterium. Enfolded within the rich Bened...