The bishops of Australia respond to the verdict against Card. Pell

After the announcement of the conviction for badual violence on Cardinal George Pell's children, several Australian bishops affirmed their commitment to truth and justice, while refusing to comment until the end of the day. Call cardinal, according to information disseminated by the ACIPrensa agency. Bishop Anthony Colin Fisher, Archbishop of Sydney, urged Catholics not to judge the situation too quickly.

At a Mbad in the Basilica of Santa Mara, Sydney, on March 3, the prelate said that Catholics across the country were shaken, upset and demoralized by the announcement of Cardinal Pell's condemnation .

After pointing out the damage that abuse can cause to the victims and the credibility of the Church, Bishop Fisher said that we should not discuss the content of the charges or the verdict.

The legal procedure for the cardinal is not over yet, so do not comment. I urge people not to draw definite conclusions until the judges have had the opportunity to consider this issue. In the midst of the burning emotions of the present, I also pray for the calmness and civility of the public, express.

Monseor Fisher noted that some had raised serious issues to be submitted to the court of appeal. If we are too quick to judge, we can end up uniting ourselves with demonizers or apologists, those who seek blood or those who deny it.

Our readings remind us that things are not always what they seem to be; that we must look below the surface and let truth and righteousness unveil at God's moment, I added.

The Archbishop reiterates his solidarity with all those who have been abused by the clergy, as well as their commitment to seek the truth in the denunciations of abuse and to prevent them from progressing.

Cardinal Pell was convicted in December 2018 by a Melbourne court under five counts of child badual abuse, on the grounds of allegations of badual badault against two former members of the Melbourne Cathedral Choir .

The conviction was made public on February 26, after the lifting of a veto of information imposed by the court before the trial.

Cardinal Pell pleads the sentence and incurs a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.

Several bishops expressed surprise at the verdict at the end of a five-week trial that had taken place after a jury had failed to rule on the issue. unanimity at a previous trial.

For his part, in a pastoral letter of March 2, the Archbishop of Perth, Monseor Timothy John Costelloe, SDB, also stated that he did not wish to comment on the condemnation or appeal of Cardinal Pell until the completion of the judicial process.

I firmly believe that, in order not to aggravate the situation and be perceived as someone who is attempting to compromise the outcome of the appeal process, he should not comment on the situation of Cardinal Pell before the end of judicial proceedings, ind.

The archbishop added that instead of granting interviews at that time, it is quite appropriate to support the residents of his archdiocese. Therefore, our first response to the terrible present situation must be, without foreseeing the outcome of the call () to support all victims and survivors of badual abuse by Church representatives. , indic.

Mark Benedict Coleridge, Archbishop of Brisbane and President of the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops, also issued a statement in which he stated that the announcement of this condemnation had shocked many people in Australia and around the world. .

The bishops agree that all must be equal before the law and respect the Australian legal system. The same legal system that rendered the verdict examined the appeal presented by the cardinal's legal team. We hope, at any time, that through this process, justice is done, accurate.

Bishop Coleridge said the bishops would continue to pray for all those who have been abused and for their loved ones. We are once again committed to doing all we can to make the Church a safe place for all, especially for young people and vulnerable people, "she said.

Criticism against Cardinal Pell

Other public figures have openly criticized the verdict against Cardinal Pell.

Greg Craven, Vice Chancellor of the Catholic University of Australia, hinted that the justice process was tainted by the media and police forces that had striven to blacken the name of Cardinal Pell before the trial.

It is not a story of whether a jury has done well or badly, or whether justice is considered prevalent. It's a story of whether a jury has had a fair chance to make a decision and whether our justice system can be heard, said Craven in an article published in The Australian.

George Weigel, great artist of St. John Paul II and Catholic writer, denounced what I call a tasteless legal process driven by public hysteria, political vengeance and media aggression .

In a February 27 column in First Things, Weigel defended Cardinal Pell, with whom he had been a friend for over 50 years, claiming that the treatment of the case was very, very wrong.

Reiterate the criticisms he made in a previous National Review article in which he criticized the case against Cardinal Pell for his highly implausible character. He stated that the Victoria police had opened an investigation against the cardinal a year prior to the filing of the complaint, that he had asked that complaints be filed against him without having had a complaint of misconduct and had noted that a jury had voted 10 votes. 2 to acquit Cardinal Pell before the start of the trial and the start of the second trial.

The lawsuit against Cardinal Pell, said Weigel, is based on several non-removable charges, including the inexplicable absence of a master of ceremonies, altar servers, concelebrants priests and the sacristy of the sacristy after Mbad, alleging that the violence had taken place. .

Before the trial, one of the plaintiffs died after telling his mother that he had never been badaulted. During the trial, there was no corroboration of the claims of the surviving claimant, he said in the National Review.

In his article on First Things, Weigel noted that as a Vatican diplomat and citizen, Cardinal Pell had the opportunity to remain in the extraterritorial security of the Vatican, untouchable by the Australian authorities. However, the cardinal chose to return home to defend his honor and his decades of work in the reconstruction of the Catholic Church in Australia, he said.

No one doubts that the Catholic Church in Australia has been extremely negligent in the management of badual abuse committed by religious for decades, said Weigel, pointing out that Cardinal Pell was the man who had changed this pattern of denial and camouflage.

If Pell becomes the scapegoat for the same failures for which he has worked so hard, the most serious question about the ability of the Australian public to be right and basic justice must be asked, said Weigel.

He also denounced the thirst for blood of the secular, aggressive press, determined to obtain political and ecclesiastical annotations with one of the most prominent citizens of the country on the international scene, who dared to question the progressive tabs. in all areas, from Vatican II interpretation to abortion. , climate change and the war against jihadism, concluded. +