As reported by the Italian newspaper "il Giornale," the Vatican criminal court has scheduled their appeal hearing for early February.

The two Italian environmental activists, a young woman and an older man received a suspended prison sentence for property damage in the initial verdict on June 12, 2023.

Supporters of the activists are urging the court to acquit them on social media, citing their protest's alignment with Pope Francis' advocacy for climate protection.

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He is currently in custody, waiting for three senior judges to consider his appeal against his conviction for child sexual abuse.

Pell was jailed in February for six years, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months, after being convicted last December of several child sex offences.

Regardless of whether he wins or loses his appeal, he may find the Vatican will also want to examine his case in court.

A lecturer in canon law at a pontifical university in Rome, who prefers to remain anonymous, says if Pell were tried at the Vatican, three judges would need to be involved.

"The two legal systems, that of Victoria [the Australian state where Pell is appealing his convictions] and the Vatican, are independent of one another.

"Canonical (Catholic Church law) trials can judge Catholic faithful independently from states," the lecturer says.

Therefore, if the Vatican were informed of a crime, canonical justice would investigate it "in any case", with the accuser represented by the "Promoter of Justice".

The lecturer went on to explain that there are two types of Vatican trial.

One is a trial by three judges, including a chief judge who conducts the trial. The trial involves interrogating, verifying documents and arranging psychological assessments.

At the end, the chief judge receives the comments the prosecution and defence make on all the evidence.

Only then do the judges pronounce their ruling, and sentence if appropriate.

If the person who has been convicted disagrees with the judges' decision, they can appeal the sentence through the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The lecturer said the second and more likely type of trial was an administrative one.

In this type of trial, all possible proofs are collected and the accused is heard. Pope Francis, or someone nominated by him examines these and then tells the accused exactly what he is being accused of. The accused is then given time to prepare his defence.

As is the case with the first type of trial, the chief judge discusses the evidence with the other judges and makes a ruling.

Again, the option of appealing the sentence through the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is available.

The lecturer said the court in Melbourne could opt to share all evidence and documents with the Vatican trial judges who would take "more or less a year" to rule on the case after a "not secret but reserved" trial process.

If it chose to, the court in Melbourne could opt to share all evidence and documents with the Vatican trial judges.

The lecturer said it is likely it would take "more or less a year" to rule on the case after a "not secret but reserved" trial process.

"Those who don't believe in the Church's honesty won't believe in such a trial. Those who believe Church law is being respected, even if they don't have first-hand knowledge of its proceedings, will still trust it," the lecturer said.

Source

• SBS News
• TVNZ
• Image: RFI

He has been accused of sexually abusing seminarians.

Francis says he received the results of a preliminary investigation into Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta two weeks ago.

As a result, he ordered the case be handed over for trial by a church tribunal.

Zanchetta resigned suddenly as the bishop of Oran, Argentina in 2017.

Within a few months he was was granted a senior Vatican administration position.

News reports say the Vatican was aware of inappropriate sexual behaviour by Zanchetta two years before he resigned.

However, the Vatican refutes this, insisting Zanchetta's resignation was because he was facing governance problems at the time.

The Vatican says the first accusation of Zanchetta's abuse came in late 2018.

Francis was asked about Zanchetta's track record when he was interviewed on Mexican television earlier this week.

He said in 2015 he asked Zanchetta about the first accusations against him involving nude selfies on his cellphone.

Francis went on to say that he gave Zanchetta the benefit of the doubt about the selfies when he claimed his phone had been hacked.

A year later, Oran's seminary rector was so concerned about Zanchetta's behavior that he made a formal complaint to the Vatican ambassador that "urgent measures" were needed to protect his first-year students, since their introductory classes were held in Zanchetta's residence.

The complaint listed Zanchetta's problematic behaviour with seminarians. This included his tendency to walk by their rooms at night, asking them for massages, going into their rooms to wake them up in the morning and sitting on their beds, inviting them to drink alcohol and having an "obsessive omnipresence" in the seminary that made the young men feel "asphyxiated."

Source

• Los Angeles Times
• Fox News Network
• Image: Catholic Sentinel