Cardinal George Pell has admitted that he wanted to avoid big damages verdicts when he set up a response to deal with child sex abuse complaints in the Church. Cardinal Pell said this in giving evidence before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse in Sydney. The Melbourne Response, which Cardinal Pell Read more
Cardinal George Pell has said he believes victims of clergy sex abuse should be able to sue the Catholic Church in Australia. Cardinal Pell made this statement at the opening of another public hearing in Sydney by the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The commission is examining the case of abuse Read more
Cardinal George Pell will give evidence at Royal Commission hearings dealing with child sex abuse before he leaves for Rome. A hearing in Sydney of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will examine the experience of abuse victim John Ellis. Mr Ellis’s claim of abuse by a priest in the 1970s Read more
The Pope’s finance chief says the working languages of the Vatican’s new Secretariat for the Economy will be English as well as Italian. Cardinal George Pell said this will mean that the new Vatican department will be able to access the best people from around the world. In late February, Pope Francis announced the secretariat Read more
When it was announced in 2001 that Melbourne Archbishop George Pell was to be made Archbishop of Sydney, the incumbent, Cardinal Edward Clancy, said Pell was ‘a controversial figure, and controversial figures generally create a few enemies as well as friends along the way’. Pell’s latest promotion, to head an important new office in Rome Read more
Pope Francis, Monday, started to reform the Vatican’s scandal-plagued financial system by announcing a new Secretariat for the Economy. The secretariat, a new co-ordination structure for economic and administrative affairs of the Holy See and Vatican, will be headed by Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell will have authority over all economic and administrative activities with Read more
The presbytery of St. Alipius is a redbrick gothic bungalow built when gold money was still washing through Ballarat. It sits in a Catholic compound of brick and granite schools and convents where the road from Melbourne reaches town. White crosses stand on the gables of the house as if to ward off evil from Read more
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney has said that Pope Francis’s popularity with the media is “too good to last.” The Catholic Herald reported that the cardinal made the remark in a reflection on World Youth Day in Rio. His comment followed the Pope being called “awesome” by the men’s magazine Esquire and his face appearing Read more
Pope Francis has appointed eight cardinals to assist him in reorganizing the Vatican’s administration. One of them is the archbishop of Sydney, Australia, George Pell. Many think he was chosen simply because he is the only cardinal in Oceania and it appears that the pope wanted one from each continental region. When asked in an Read more
Cardinal George Pell, one of eight cardinal advisors chosen by Pope Francis, believes the new Pope has “set a cracking pace” in his first 100 days in office. But the Sydney cardinal expressed some concern for the Pope’s health under the work regime he has set himself. “He’s not a young man and he seems Read more