De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

In this episode we share some reflections about Cardinal Pell's extraordinary contribution to the Church, his courage and stoic faith. This is especially boosted by a conversation Gavin recently had with Vatican Journalist Edward Pentin. You can listen to the whole thing here .  Please do like and subscribe to our channel for more Catholic chat.

The above graph posted by Edward Pentin shows the value and number of wire transfers from the Vatican to Australia 2014-2020 totalling AUS $2.3 billion (USD $1.7 billion) The Australian’s Dennis Shanahan reports on a discovery that the Vatican and associated entities - from 2014 - have transferred $2.3 billion to accounts in Australia that don't seem to be connected to either the church or the government. When Shanahan contacted senior church officials about the matter "they hadn't heard about it".  The Australian Federal Police have been investigating the matter after it was discovered large amounts of money were being transferred from the Vatican to Australia around the time Cardinal George Pell was being accused. The amounts doubled every year from 2014, the year Cardinal Pell was appointed Vatican treasurer, reaching a peak in 2017 when Pell returned to Australia to face sexual abuse allegations. “Most of the time if you speak to senior church figures, they say ...

As the news breaks that Detective Superintendent Paul Sheridan testifying at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, gives evidence that the investigation into Cardinal Pell began in March 2013 to ascertain whether he had committed crimes which had gone unreported, in other words Tethering set out looking for a crime to fit up the Cardinal, because no crime had been reported,  The Australian reports that, in Cardinal Pell's absence, the reforms he actioned for the Secretariat for the Economy and the office of the Auditor-General are being revoked and re-written by the corrupt Vatican officials he was charged with sorting out. Frankly a blind puffin from the Faroe Islands could have guessed this is how things would unfold: (Paola Totaro) The Vatican “old guard” accused of undermining Pope Francis’s ­attempts to root out financial corruption in the Holy See are exploiting Cardinal George Pell’s absence as he fights sex charges in Australia to jettison the reform program. Senior V...

This post from Austen Ivereigh on Catholic Voices blog speaks about what is missing from the coverage of Cardinal Pell's Lenten testimony on abuse: "Pell has honestly named the point which consistently gets ignored in the coverage of child sex abuse, especially in relation to the Church — namely, the vast gulf of moral awareness and empathy that separates our time from the 1970s-80s. Back then, people didn’t much know or care about child abuse. There was a generalised social silence. Victims hardly ever complained. It wasn’t seen as a police matter, and if the police were informed they tended to pass the matter onto the bishop to deal with. To the extent it was a problem — as it was, clearly, for bishops at the time who had to decide what to do with their priests — the focus was always on the perpetrator, not the victims. It was seen as a sickness that needed treatment and time away on leave, like alcoholism, followed by rehabilitation in the form of another parish ass...

A statement has been released by Cardinal Pell. It reads as follows: Tim Minchin's new song " Come Home (Cardinal Pell) " gives an indication of the level of public debate in Australia at present. If one has the stomach to read through the comments underneath, it is clear that commentators are completely uninterested in getting to the truth of the matter; they simply want to (metaphorically, I hope) flog Cardinal Pell and drag him publicly through a vicious, abusive mob. My journalist friend Ruari McCallion has looked into this in some detail and he points out that it doesn't matter how many times it is demonstrated that the Cardinal has already testified, several times, or that he actually set up the fund and protocol that compensates victims, it matters not a bit - they aren't interested. They want their victim, they want him publicly humiliated, and they want him now. The damage inflicted on the people who truly suffered and their interests are ...

High drama last night as Cardinal Kasper denied the comments he was reported as making about African Bishops on Zenit ( as I blogged yesterday ). After the interview was published, Cardinal Kasper told German media : “I am appalled. I have never spoken this way about Africans and I never would, I assure you that in these days and weeks…nobody from Zenit has introduced themselves to me and no one has asked for an interview. Nobody from Zenit has had an interview from me.” Edward Pentin, an experienced reporter for the National Catholic Register  responded by posting the audio recording of the exchange with Cardinal Kasper on his website , along with the following statement: His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke to me and two other journalists, one British, the other French, around 7.15pm on Tuesday as he left the Synod hall. I transcribed the recording of our conversation, and my iPhone on which I recorded the exchange was visible. I introduced myself as a journalist ...