Cardinal George Pell has been criticised for his dietary choices in Rome after he said he was too ill to fly to Australia to testify at a royal commission. On April 18, Cardinal Pell was photographed in Rome’s Domiziano restaurant eating a meal of steak and chips, washed down with a large beer. A few Read more
A sex abuse survivor spokesman who accused Cardinal George Pell of bribery has been accused of not being transparent about his own record of abusing. David Ridsdale is the nephew of notorious Australian paedophile priest Fr Gerald Ridsdale. David Ridsdale has repeatedly called for Cardinal Pell and the Church to be transparent about what they Read more
Cardinal George Pell has pledged to serve his full five-year term as prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy. Although he turns 75 next month, the cardinal plans to continue in his current post until 2019. This was confirmed in a statement his office released late last month. A Crux article reported that, according to Read more
Former Catholic education officials in Melbourne have rejected Cardinal George Pell’s statement that he was not made fully aware of an abusive priest. Four officials testified earlier this week at Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. When Cardinal Pell came to Melbourne as an auxiliary bishop in 1987, Fr Peter Searson Read more
The Vatican’s finance chief, Cardinal George Pell, has expressed surprise at the suspension of an independent audit of the Vatican’s finances. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State suspended the audit by international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers last week. This is four months after the Vatican had announced PwC was to perform the audit. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Read more
Despite the unpersuasive Vatican spin on Cardinal Pell’s appearance last week before the Royal Commission into child sex abuse in institutions – that his performance was “dignified” and “edifying”, his performance, in the assessment of most observers including this one, was inept, cowardly and unconvincing. Cardinal Pell is only one Australian Catholic and he has Read more
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi described the testimony made by Cardinal George Pell before the royal commission into child sexual abuse as “dignified.” Pell “must be accorded the appropriate acknowledgment for his dignified and coherent personal testimony, from which yet again there emerges an objective and lucid picture of the errors committed in many ecclesial Read more
Cardinal George Pell admitted that he did not act on a complain made by a boy in 1974 that Brother Edward Dowlan was “misbehaving” with students at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat. Dowlan, who has since changed his name to Ted Bales, was jailed last year for abusing boys in the 1970s and ’80s. “With Read more
Cardinal George Pell said the Catholic Church “has made enormous mistakes” in dealing with allegations of sex abuse by priests. The Australian prelate made the statement when he testified via video link from a Rome hotel to the Royal Commission sitting in Sydney. “I’m not here to defend the indefensible. The church has made enormous Read more
Victorian police have referred the alleged leaks of an investigation into Cardinal George Pell to the state’s anti-corruption commission. The investigation concerned allegations of child sexual abuse made against Cardinal Pell, which the cardinal has strongly denied. Cardinal Pell called for an inquiry into the leaks and wrote to Victoria’s police minister requesting this. Victoria Read more