Cardinal Pell, a key adviser to Pope Francis, has been ordered to appear in a Melbourne court next month to respond to charges that he personally committed acts involving the sexual abuse of minors.
Of course, in Australia as in America, defendants alleged to have committed crimes, as Cardinal George Pell has been, are considered innocent until proven guilty after due process of law.
At a news conference in Rome, Cardinal Pell stated unequivocally: “ I'm looking forward, finally, to having my day in court. I'm innocent of these charges, they are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”
The Cardinal made those remarks after hearing from Shane Patton, a police official in the Australian State of Victoria, that he had been accused by numerous alleged victims of “historical acts of sexual abuse” dating as far back as the 1970s and 1980s, before he became the senior Vatican official he is now.
With these allegations, Cardinal Pell becomes the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to face sexual assault charges.
The case against Cardinal Pell actually began more than a decade ago, with accusations that, when he was a Priest and Bishop both in Melbourne and Sydney, had mishandled abuse allegations against others.
However, these latest allegations against him personally - that is, charges that he himself had committed abuse - are more recent, that is, they have been around now for a couple of years.
Pope Francis was asked about them last year when he was returning from Poland and on the Papal plane on the way back to Rome. He was asked what he planned to do about them. The Pope responded, “ I am going to let the justice system speak, and then I will speak.”
It should be said that during his final years, when he was the Archbishop of Sydney, there was a great deal of controversy that made it a bit of a surprise that newly-elected Pope Francis brought him to Rome to be his financial-cleanup man in the newly created Secretariat for the Economy.
It is probably fair to say that Cardinal Pell's power inside the Vatican peaked probably a year and a half ago. Since then, he has spoken publicly about issues over which he disagrees with Pope Francis. For his part, the Holy Father has seemed to limit the power and influence which Cardinal Pell once enjoyed early on in his Vatican post. That may not directly be related to the charges against him but perhaps has more to do with internal Vatican politics. However, these accusations will not serve the Cardinal’s interests whatsoever.
The press in Australia has quoted leading legal scholars who raised the question of whether Cardinal Pell can get a fair trial because public opinion has been so thoroughly poisoned - not just by the personal attacks against the Cardinal, but also by the broader narrative of the sexual-abuse scandal in the country.
We can only hope and pray that the allegations against Cardinal Pell are false and that he will exonerated. If that were to happen and happen quickly, perhaps it could allow the Cardinal to return to his Vatican post strengthened in his position which, for the time being, clearly has been compromised.
No comments:
Post a Comment