Saturday 30th of March 2024

holier than thou .....

holier than thou .....

The Catholic Church's most senior figure in Australia, Cardinal George Pell, has conceded a letter he wrote to a man who had been sexually assaulted by a priest was a mistake but has defended his overall handling of the case. 

ABC TV's Lateline program last night revealed Sydney's Catholic Archbishop had written to Anthony Jones, saying his claims of sexual assault by Father Terrence Goodall could not be substantiated and there had been no other allegations of abuse by the priest. 

But an internal church investigation had found Mr Jones's complaint to be proven and recommended action be taken. 

Sex Assault Case Closed, Says Pell

making fridge magnets .....

Pledging to "move toward a low-carbon society," leaders of the world's richest nations on Tuesday endorsed the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but failed to set a short-term goal for reducing the toxic heat-trapping gases that scientists say are warming the planet. 

The declaration of the so-called Group of Eight - the United States, Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia - called on developing nations like China and India to follow suit. 

It drew immediate criticism from environmentalists, who said it did not go far enough. 

But Phil Clapp, an expert in climate change at the Pew Environmental Group, said the leaders had in fact weakened language they adopted at last year's Group of Eight meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany. 

"The emissions reduction goal is extremely weak," Mr. Clapp said, because it aims to reduce emissions from current levels rather than 1990 levels, as the leaders proposed last year. He added, "The science shows that we have to reduce 80 to 90 percent from current levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change." 

G-8 Leaders Pledge Emissions Cuts By 2050, Avoid Short Term Goals 

back in the real world ….. 

Since 2002, Rajendra Pachauri has presided over the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the reports of which have scientifically asserted the reality of climate change. For that work, this 67-year-old Indian engineer and economist received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with former American Vice President Al Gore.  

A guest in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) at the Informal Council of European Environment and Energy Ministers on Friday, July 4, he called on the Twenty-Seven to maintain their commitment to reduce their greenhouse gases by at least 20 percent between now and 2020.  

Quoting Gandhi, he exhorted the Europeans to be at the forefront of the struggle against global warming: "If you want the world to change," he declared to the ministers, "you have to embody the change you want." 

We Have Seven Years Left To Reverse The CO2 Emissions Curve

priest admits having non-consensual sex

Pell's sex assault stance 'hinges on phone taps'

Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell says he was not aware of tapped phone conversations where a Catholic priest admits having non-consensual sex with his victim.

He has been accused of mishandling a sexual abuse complaint made by religious teacher Anthony Jones against Sydney Priest Father Terence Goodall.

Police phone taps obtained by the ABC's Lateline record Father Terence Goodall admitting to victim Anthony Jones that he did not tell a church investigator his actions were consensual.

cardinal sins .....

from Crikey ….. 

Spin watch: Pell's poor PR performance 

Trevor Cook, strategic communications consultant who blogs at Corporate Engagement, writes: 

Cardinal George Pell has made four errors in handling the current sex abuse controversy. The first three are dumb, the fourth is potentially devastating. 

The first error, misjudging his accuser, is surprising for a man in Pell's position. Victims of abuse often want official recognition of the crimes committed against them. It helps them move on. Every senior charity manager has come up against the single-mindedness of victims.  

Pell initially spun a "this matter is closed" response, with an even lamer "I made an honest mistake" rider. It was never going to be seen as an appropriate response by the broader community or by the victim, Anthony Jones. 

The second error involved misunderstanding the media appeal of Jones' story in the lead-up to the Pope's visit. Again surprising, given that Pell and the Australian Catholic Church can't have missed the focus on sex abuse in the church during the papal visit to the USA in April.  

As the bard said: "desperate diseases, desperate measures require". Pell should have ordered immediately a further review of the case by an independent person. This would have at least got the matter out of the current news cycle. Pell should have used the controversy as a platform for tackling the broader issue of s-xual abuse in our society and his church.

The third error is real rookie stuff. Every issue manager (someone who gets you out of perceptual poo) knows that a response must comprehend the full extent of the foul-up, otherwise you get blind-sided by the rolling revelation nightmare (see also Iguanagate).  

No sooner had Pell asserted that the offender had told him it was consensual than evidence appeared, miraculously, that flatly contradicted this defence. Often the accuser, or journalist, will hold something back for a little second phase play. Or the heightened public interest will see juicy stuff heading to news desks. 

Now the biggie, value alignment. People judge you on your emotional response to issues. It's easier, and usually more accurate, than trawling through claim and counter-claim. If your values seem out-of-step, you're stuffed. 

Pell revealed a deep misalignment with this summation: "There was a candlelight dinner, they swam together, they were sitting on the bed together," he said. "It was because of the circumstances as explained that I took that view..." 

For the community, the only thing that matters is whether Anthony Jones said yes to sex. Pell's explanation, however, sounds like; "hey, she (he) was asking for it". And using lurid details, like "candlelight", just made Pell's response look worse. 

Pell now looks like damaged goods; a little too clever with his wordings; lacking in empathy and at odds with modern community values. It will be hard for him to recover the ground he's lost in the past week.

holy rolling .....

The Pope will speak in defence of the "trampled" rights of indigenous Australians when he flies into Sydney for World Youth Day celebrations. 

On the eve of the Pope's historic visit to Sydney tomorrow, the Vatican press office said the plight of Aborigines "and their rights trampled for centuries" would be a key topic of the "Pope's words as well as in the addresses of civil authorities". 

Pope To Address Rights Issues 

meanwhile ….. 

The man at the centre of a sex abuse scandal involving Cardinal George Pell says he was threatened with legal action by the Sydney Archbishop's lawyers. 

Anthony Jones, who was sexually assaulted in 1982 by a priest, Father Terrence Goodall, says he was threatened with legal action if he spoke about the matter on ABC Television. 

"On Monday night I was threatened by Pell's lawyers that, if the matter was aired on Lateline, they may prosecute me for contempt of court," Mr Jones said in a statement today. 

"Again on Wednesday evening Goodall's lawyers also threatened to sue me and to prosecute me for being in contempt of court if the program revealing the police telephone intercept of Goodall was televised on Lateline." 

Bid To Gag Sex Abuse Victim 

But why would we expect anything more? 

As Mike Carlton points out ….. 

Cardinal George Pell finds himself in awful trouble about child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church for a very good reason. In the spotlight of World Youth Day, he is paying a price for the church's long and disgraceful history of sweeping its sins under the altar table.

Perhaps the Pope will apologise in Sydney next week. But he, too, has questions to answer. Why has the Vatican given asylum to an American cardinal who was at the very apex of a conspiracy of pederast priests?

Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston, systematically protected rapist priests in his diocese in full knowledge of the abominable crimes they had committed against children. For years he lied to shield them, moved them from parish to parish, and turned his back on their victims.

When the truth began to come out and things got too hot for him, Law resigned from Boston in 2002 and fled to Rome, where he is now a high official of the Curia, occupying powerful posts in the Vatican bureaucracy.

He retains his cardinal's red hat and, evidently, the favour of Benedict XVI.

The turbulent British journalist Christopher Hitchens publicly called on the Pope to explain this outrage during his recent visit to the United States. There was no answer, of course. So I repeat the request here.

slithery sideways machinations .....

I do not like thee, Cardinal Pell

The reason why, you know full well.

And please believe the words I tell:

If there were one, you'd rot in hell. 

Snap, snap! Time for all those leaders of the church, of all denominations, to call for the removal of this odious man.  

Haven't we all heard quite enough, over many years, about the cover-ups, the abuse, the concealment, the hypocrisy?  

I do not like thee, Cardinal Pell

buffoonery .....

The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, today warned Western nations such as Australia to populate or perish. 

"There is a crisis in the Western world. No Western country is producing enough babies to keep the population stable, no Western country," he said. 

Cardinal Pell would not commit to a broad apology to sex abuse victims when questioned today. 

"That's appropriate because it's basically a local responsibility. I've done that, of course, and so we will see what develops." 

Populate Or Perish: Pell 

the man is not only a liar & a phoney, who runs around dressed-up in funny clothes, he’s a fool as well ….. 

Hotel earth is chock-a-block full … even the manger is choked to overflowing … 6.5 billion people & one billion of those just surviving in acute poverty …. 

The planet is on its last legs, with the useless churches doing absolutely nothing towards solving the problem & all this nitwit can come-up with is “populate or perish” … 

As for the alleged apology …. what a sicko ….

lock-up your youth .....

from Alternet ….. 

Unlike those nutty Muslims who are always taking offense over cartoons, these people have serious grievances. 

There are days when it is agony to read the news, because people are so goddamned stupid. Petty and stupid. Hateful and stupid. Just plain stupid. And nothing makes them stupider than religion. 

Here's a story that will destroy your hopes for a reasonable humanity

Webster Cook says he smuggled a Eucharist, a small bread wafer that to Catholics symbolic of the Body of Christ after a priest blesses it, out of mass, didn't eat it as he was supposed to do, but instead walked with it. 

This isn't the stupid part yet. He walked off with a cracker that was put in his mouth, and people in the church fought with him to get it back. It is just a cracker! 

Catholics worldwide became furious.  

Would you believe this isn't hyperbole? People around the world are actually extremely angry about this — Webster Cook has been sent death threats over his cracker. Those are just kooks, you might say, but here is the considered, measured response of the local diocese: 

"We don't know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was," said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. "However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it." 

We just expect the University to take this seriously," she added "To send a message to not just Mr. Cook but the whole community that this kind of really complete sacrilege will not be tolerated." 

Wait, what? Holding a cracker hostage is now a hate crime? The murder of Matthew Shephard was a hate crime. The murder of James Byrd Jr. was a hate crime. This is a goddamned cracker. Can you possibly diminish the abuse of real human beings any further? 

Well, you could have a priest compare this event to a kidnapping

"It is hurtful," said Father Migeul Gonzalez with the Diocese. "Imagine if they kidnapped somebody and you make a plea for that individual to please return that loved one to the family." 

Gonzalez said the Diocese is willing to meet with Cook and help him understand the importance of the Eucharist in hopes of him returning it. The Diocese is dispatching a nun to UCF's campus to oversee the next mass, protect the Eucharist and in hopes Cook will return it. 

I like the idea of sending a scary nun to guard the ceremony at the next mass. But even better…let's send Webster Cook to hell! 

Gonzalez said intentionally abusing the Eucharist is classified as a mortal sin in the Catholic church, the most severe possible. If it's not returned, the community of faith will have to ask for forgiveness. 

"We have to make acts of reparation," Gonzalez said. "The whole community is going to turn to prayer. We'll ask the Lord for pardon, forgiveness, peace, not only for the whole community affected by it, but also for [Cook], we offer prayers for him as well." 

Get some perspective, man. IT'S A CRACKER. 

And of course, Bill Donohue is outraged (I know, Donohue is going to die of apoplexy someday when a gnat violates his oatmeal, so this isn't saying much). 

For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage - regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance--is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion. 

Oh, beyond hate speech. Where does this fit on the Shoah scale, Bill? It shouldn't even register, but here is Wild-Eyed Bill the Offended calling for the expulsion of a student…for not swallowing a cracker. 

Would you believe that the mealy-mouthed president of the university, John Hitt, is avoiding defending his student is instead playing up the importance of the Catholic church to the university? Of course you would. That's what university presidents do

Bugger the students, keep the donors and the state reps happy. 

Unfortunately, Webster Cook has now returned the cracker. Why? 

Webster just wants all of this to go away. Especially now that he feels his life is in danger. 

That's right. Crazy Christian fanatics right here in our own country have been threatening to kill a young man over a cracker. This is insane. These people are demented fuckwits. And Cook is not out of the fire yet — that Fox News story ends with an open incitement to cause him further misery

University officials said, that as for right now, Webster Cook is not in trouble. If anyone or any group wants to file a formal complaint with the University through the student judicial system, they can. If that happens, Webster will go through a hearing either in front of an administrative panel or a panel of his peers. 

Got that? If you don't like what Webster Cook did, all you have to do is complain to the university, and they will do the dirty work for you of making his college experience miserable. And don't assume the university would support Cook; the college is now having armed university police officers standing guard during mass

I find this all utterly unbelievable. It's like Dark Age superstition and malice, all thriving with the endorsement of secular institutions here in 21st century America. It is a culture of deluded lunatics calling the shots and making human beings dance to their mythical bunkum. 

So, what to do. I have an idea. Can anyone out there score me some consecrated communion wafers? There's no way I can personally get them — my local churches have stakes prepared for me, I'm sure — but if any of you would be willing to do what it takes to get me some, or even one, and mail it to me, I'll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare. I won't be tempted to hold it hostage (no, not even if I have a choice between returning the Eucharist and watching Bill Donohue kick the pope in the balls, which would apparently be a more humane act than desecrating a goddamned cracker), but will instead treat it with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web. I shall do so joyfully and with laughter in my heart. If you can smuggle some out from under the armed guards and grim nuns hovering over your local communion ceremony, just write to me and I'll send you my home address. 

Just wait. Now there'll be a team of Jesuits assigned to rifle through my mail every day.

sex-life, above the doona...

from the BBC

China is building what is billed as its first sex theme park, aimed at improving both the sex education and the sex life of its visitors.

Due to open in Chongqing in October, Love Land will include displays of giant genitalia, naked bodies and an exhibition on the history of sex.

The park will also offer sex technique workshops and safe-sex methods.

Among the attractions is a giant rotating statue of the lower part of a nearly naked woman.

"Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it," the park's manager, Lu Xiaoqing told the China Daily state newspaper.

"We are building the park for the good of the public. I have found that the majority of people support my idea, but I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty."

--------------------

taking the fun out of the church, rugby league... and other institutions...

see toon at top...

love land vanished...

China's first sexually explicit theme park has been torn down before it even started, after an outcry from officials, a Chinese newspaper has reported.

Love Land, set to open in October in the south-western city of Chongqing, featured exhibits on sexual history and how-to workshops, the China Daily newspaper reported last week.

A picture of the park entrance showed a signboard with the park's name straddled by a giant pair of women's legs topped by red underwear.

But the plans left Chongqing officials red-faced. They ordered the park torn down over the weekend, the China Daily reported.

Officials called the planned park "vulgar, ill-minded and misleading", said the paper, and many Chinese citizens apparently agreed.

------------------

see toon at top and comment above...

damn spot again .....

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland say a pastoral letter from the Pope expressing shame and remorse falls far short of dealing with their concerns.

Irish clergy welcomed the Pope's letter, saying it paved the way for a ''season of rebirth'', but campaigners said his response to a scandal that has rocked the church in Ireland left many questions unanswered.

In the letter read out to congregations across Ireland, the Pope said he was ''truly sorry'' for the suffering of the victims and admitted Irish bishops had made serious errors in their response to allegations of sexual abuse.

The church is embroiled in potentially its biggest crisis of Benedict XVI's five-year papacy. Hundreds of abuse cases involving Catholic clergy have emerged in recent weeks in the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and the Pope's native Germany.

In Ireland a government report last year detailed thousands of instances of physical and sexual abuse from 1930 to 1990.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/popes-letter-on-abuse-inadequate-say-victims-20100321-qo4d.html

And who would feed them - Monsanto?

I consider that Cardinal Pell is a radical Roman Catholic Priest who cannot and will not separate his Church from the Executive.  To him the Church takes precedent as indeed it did in the days of Henry the VIII. Even the confessional should be illegal since it puts religion above the laws of nations.

To realize that he is not only the confessor for the "Mad Monk" - but also his advisor and friend, should make us all sit up and take notice.  This is not the way countries should be run at any time and still claim to be a true democracy (if there is such a thing).  This was how they were run when wars between nations were dictated by the Vatican and the Pope was "God on Earth" to the true believers.

The Vatican fought viciously against the Science of the people and was guilty of the most heinous of crimes for the sole purpose of total control of hearts and minds.  They said who would be the government of all subject nations and who would do what in all major matters of human existence.  They literally crushed any freedom in society that did not meet the demands of the Pope, and their adherents are still bogged down in the slow but steady modification of Catholicism.

Tony Abbott is a Roman Catholic whose psyche is molded by his Church and, as Mungo McCullum put it on Q & A,  "he cannot separate his religion from politics".  This is as dangerous to Australian religious freedom and as potentially influential in voting intentions as was A.B. Santamaria - The Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and Archbishop Mannix et al.

The 2006 Australian Census noted that there were 5, 126,884 Catholics in Australia, or 25.8% of our total population, at that time.  Of course, not all of them are voters but, if those numbers could be manipulated to certain Federal seats and the voters guided to religion only, it could make a huge difference as I think the Asians had on ridding Australia of "Rattus".

What better way for a religion to take over a nation by simply making the Catholics responsible to the Vatican as they once were in Europe and are still somewhat in charge in the South Americas.

Kevin Rudd is also a Roman Catholic but IMHO he does not make a fuss of it nor does any of his policies indicate a religious preference at all - quite the contrary, he makes himself sick just trying to be fair.

The "Mad Monk" has had his media honeymoon and his 15 minutes of glory, now let us get on with the business of modernizing Australia for the future, not for the bad old days of the past.

May all Gods bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

 

 

fakin' it .....

There is only one conceivable reaction to the fast-spreading crisis in the Catholic church: horror. Only the most virulent anti-papist could ever have quite envisaged the scale of child abuse and the doggedness of the church's desire to stifle scandal. The rest of us are astonished and appalled. Quite rightly, Angela Merkel saw fit to intervene. After decades - perhaps we should rather be referring to centuries - of obfuscation, the Catholic church has to be called to account for what has happened.

Since abuse allegations first emerged in the early 90s in the UK and Ireland, the denials, both those of officials and those which ordinary Catholics told themselves, have shifted several times. Initially the church authorities declared it was just a few bad apples, but last summer the Ryan report exposed decades of systematic abuse of thousands of children in Ireland. Another line of defence was that it was a particular Anglophone problem with roots in Ireland's excessively deferential Catholic culture, which had then been exported to the US and Australia.

Now this explanation is falling apart as abuse allegations emerge across Europe in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. Last summer, scandal erupted in the Hispanophone media when stories in Spain and Mexico alleged that Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of a religious order, the Legion of Christ, and much favoured by Pope John Paul II, was found to have fathered several children. After allegations of child abuse, the entire order - with institutions in several Latin American countries - is now under investigation by the Vatican.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/mar/19/catholic-church-child-abuse

a cup of tea and Vegemite sandwich...

A model citizen and devoted family man whose adult police record is two speeding fines has been denied work because he is ''a threat to children'', writes legal affairs reporter Geesche Jacobsen.

Lyn and Neville Cox were childhood sweethearts who had grown up in the same street. They were very much in love. When she became pregnant at 15, Lyn's father was furious and reported 16-year-old Neville to police, who charged the boy with carnal knowledge.

The half-hour court hearing that followed seemed inconsequential, but more than 40 years later it revealed its lasting legacy, branding Mr Cox a child sex offender who should not be around children.

The couple married soon after his conviction, with nothing but a cup of tea and Vegemite sandwich with Mr Cox's family to celebrate.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/young-love-comes-back-to-haunt-couple-20120428-1xrh2.html#ixzz1tODqMVcj

gelli...

 

An Italian financier who was linked to several of the country's most troubling episodes has died at the age of 96.

Licio Gelli was the grandmaster of a notorious masonic group, Propaganda Two (P2), which included prominent Italian politicians and military figures.

P2 was exposed in 1981 and accused of conspiring with right-wing extremists and the mafia to undermine governments.

Gelli was born in 1919 and first became involved in politics as part of the fascist movement of Benito Mussolini.

He later volunteered to fight for Gen Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and went on to join neo-fascist parties.

He joined the freemasons in the 1960s and founded the P2 lodge in 1970. A list of alleged members was later discovered by Italian police - and included one Silvio Berlusconi, the future prime minister.

Gelli was sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud linked to the collapse of a bank with ties to the Vatican - but never served significant prison time.

The bank's boss Roberto Calvi - known as "God's banker" for his ties to the Vatican - was found hanged under a bridge in London in 1982, and prosecutors later said they believed he had been murdered.

'Always a fascist'

Gelli was also found guilty of obstructing justice during investigations into the 1980 explosion at the Bologna train station which killed 85 people.

He absconded from house arrest in 1998 after he had previously escaped from a prison in Switzerland. He was re-arrested four months later.

Attempts to have members of the P2 group jailed for political conspiracy and attempting to destabilise the state finally failed in 1994.

At a news conference in 1999, Gelli said: "I am a fascist and will die a fascist."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35115576

 

If my memory is correct him or another freemason doodah was actually working for the Russians... See toon at top...

 

findings...

For religious institutions:

  • The ministry of churches (not just the Catholic Church) should not be exempt from reporting information discovered in religious confession.
  • Any religious organisation with a rite of religious confession should implement a policy that confession for children be conducted in an open space and in a clear line of sight of another adult.
  • The Australian Catholic Church should request permission from the Vatican to introduce voluntary celibacy for diocesan clergy.
  • Candidates for religious ministry should undergo external psychological testing, including psychosexual assessment, to determine their suitability to be in the ministry and to undertake work involving children.
  • Any person in religious ministry who is the subject of a complaint of child sexual abuse which is substantiated ... or who is convicted of an offence relating to child sexual abuse, should be permanently removed from ministry.
For the Federal Government:
  • The Australian Government should oversee the development and implementation of a national strategy to prevent child sexual abuse.
  • The Australian Government should establish a National Office for Child Safety.
  • The Commonwealth Government should establish a national model for Working With Children Checks within 12 months, to include the creation of a centralised database accessible across states.
  • The Australian Government should initiate a review to be conducted 10 years after the tabling of this final report.
  • The Australian Government should establish a mechanism to regularly audit the implementation of the Child Safe Standards in immigration detention by staff, contractors and agents of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
  • national memorial should be commissioned by the Australian Government for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse in institutional contexts. Victims and survivors should be consulted on the memorial design and it should be located in Canberra.
For state governments:
  • All state and territory governments should introduce legislation to provide that good character be excluded as a mitigating factor in sentencing for child sexual abuse offences where that good character facilitated the offending, similar to that applying in New South Wales and South Australia.
  • State and territory governments should introduce legislation to create a criminal offence of failure to protect a child from risk of abuse within an institution.
  • State and territory governments should extend grooming laws so that it is not just an offence to groom a child, but also to groom their parents or carers.
  • State and territory governments should provide nationally consistent and easily accessible guidance to teachers and principals on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse in all government and non-government schools.

Read more:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-15/royal-commission-recommendations-y...

even the nuns knew...

...

Cardinal George Pell's convictions for sexually abusing teenage choirboys while Archbishop of Melbourne were last month unanimously overturned by the High Court after it found that no jury, acting rationally, could not have entertained a reasonable doubt the crimes were committed. That decision overturned a judgment of the Victorian Court of Appeal which had upheld the jury's guilty verdict.

Today, it's clear judges presiding over the five-year Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse repeatedly rejected the Cardinal's evidence to them about the extent of his knowledge that other priests were paedophiles.

Pell had always emphatically asserted that he was kept in the dark. The royal commissioners say he wasn't.

While in some cases his evidence about notorious allegations was accepted by the commission, many of his submissions in relation to what he knew about offending in Ballarat and Melbourne were described as "implausible", "inconceivable" or "not tenable".

What Pell knew

The commission found Pell knew of allegations of offending in the Ballarat diocese as early as 1973, when he was Episcopal Vicar for Education.

"[H]e also had considered measures of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it," the commissioners wrote.

They found he wasn't lied to by the notorious Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, about why they were moving Father Gerald Ridsdale — one of Australia's worst paedophiles — from parish to parish to abuse ever more children. That, said the commissioners, was "inconceivable".


Ridsdale's movements were discussed at Bishop Mulkearns' meetings with his priestly consultors, one of whom, from July 1977, was George Pell.

"We do not accept that Bishop Mulkearns lied," the commissioners said, directly contradicting the key plank of Pell's evidence from Rome.

"It is inconceivable in these circumstances that Bishop Mulkearns deceived his consultors by not telling them the true reason. There would be little utility in doing so. The secret was out …

"We are satisfied that Bishop Mulkearns told the consultors that it was necessary to move Ridsdale from the Diocese and from parish work because of complaints that he had sexually abused children. A contrary position is not tenable."

As Ridsdale's offending trajectory wore on, so many people knew — the Bishop, his secretary — a life-long friend of Pell's, the monsignor (a friend of Pell's mother), Pell's cousin — another consultor, families, teachers, nuns.

The report says the "conduct of any consultor who did not advise against" Ridsdale being moved on "and who knew the reason Ridsdale … was being moved, is unacceptable."

Pell was a consultor. That is, Pell's conduct was unacceptable.

"The lives of dozens of children and their families, likely to be more than a hundred, were devastated by [Ridsdale's] conduct," the commission found.

The average age of Ridsdale's victims was 10 for girls and 11 for boys.

"There was a catastrophic institutional failure which resulted in many children being sexually abused," the royal commissioners said of Ballarat.

"The welfare of children was not the primary concern of Bishop Mulkearns and other senior members of the Diocese when responding to complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse against their priests.

"There is no doubt it should have been."

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-08/george-pell-royal-commission-findings-revealed/12225690

 

Read from top.

 

Read also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28980