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New claims of child sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell exposed in ABC TV’s Revelation

Across two compelling nights of must-see television, an exclusive interview with one of the Church’s most prolific sex-offenders, Bernard McGrath. In a tense encounter filmed in a maximum-security prison, he identifies the religious leaders responsible for the cover-up of his crimes.

And in Revelation’s cinematic, feature-length finale, explosive new allegations of child sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell are exposed.

Click here to watch promo

The world-first exclusive reveals the gripping story of an individual from a small town in Australia, pitted against a former Prince of the Church. “I chose to remain silent, never to tell a soul, and I got through a good 40 years of that,” says the survivor of sexual abuse, who publicly reveals the story of his tormented boyhood for the first time. “I want to heal now. I’ve carried that burden for long enough.”

With him are other men describing how predatory priests and brothers took advantage of vulnerable children in the Catholic community of Ballarat.

For the first time in interviews, priests describe the attitude amongst fellow holy men at the time these crimes were committed.

“Abusing children wasn’t the desperate thing it is now,” says one Ballarat priest.

Revelation’s epic finale transports viewers to the heart of power in the global Catholic Church, as it battles for the hearts and minds of the faithful amid the cover up of crimes against children for decades.

Australia’s most senior Catholic, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, tells Ferguson that at the heart of child abuse within the Church is the dark and destructive use of power. “When I look back now, I cringe. I thought I knew what I was dealing with, I didn’t have a clue.”

*Cardinal Pell was convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing two choirboys in Melbourne Cathedral in the 1990s. The High Court is considering his application to appeal the verdict. He denies all claims of sexual abuse.

Revelation concludes across 2 nights – Tuesday 31 March and Thursday 2 April at 8.30pm on ABC TV and iview. Watch episode 1 on ABC iview.Revelation is an In Films production for the ABC. Major production investment from Screen Australia. Developed and financed with the assistance of Screen NSW.

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51 replies on “New claims of child sexual abuse by Cardinal George Pell exposed in ABC TV’s Revelation”

What I love absolutely best is when convicted paedophiles name the bishops and others who have colluded in their abuse. The paedophiles are the ones with the moral sense here!

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This tv programme is Louise Milligan talking — her vendetta against Pell is going to unravel soon.

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Andrew Bolt has a long commentary on the ABC program, taking its allegations to pieces, and recalling other similar ones, which suggest a witch-hunt:

“S.G.”
Police charged Pell with repeatedly raping a boy, S.G., over a 12-month period in late 1978 and 1979 when the boy was at the St Joseph’s Children’s Home. S.G. said Pell raped him anally for three minutes during a screening at the cinema of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and no one else in the cinema noticed when the boy screamed. He said Pell also took him from the home and raped him at a playground, on the altar of the school’s chapel and at Mt Buninyong, along with two other men. Pell allegedly caused anal bleeding which S.G.’s foster mother had checked out by a local GP. In fact, records show S.G. had left the home in 1979. The film had screened in September and October the year before, his foster mother and his GP remembered no blood. And Pell was not on the staff of the home. The charges were dismissed at the committal hearing as too weak to go to a jury.

“M.B.”
Police charged Pell with molesting M.B. at a Ballarat pool. Pell denied it. M.B. told the committal hearing he’d come forward after seeing Louise Milligan’s report on the ABC. He first talks to Milligan, who wrote up his claims in her best-selling book on Pell. The police rang him. M.G. told the committal hearing Pell had given his penis “a gentle caress” under the water, but when asked to explain what exactly happened offered answers such as “whatever you think works” or “no comment”. Asked if he remembered what he’d just said, he replied: “I can’t recall.” The magistrate dismissed the charges after calling M.B. an “unsatisfactory witness” with a “cavalier attitude towards giving his evidence” which was not “of sufficient weight to support a conviction”. But this witness and this evidence was treated seriously by Milligan.

“L.M.”
Police charged Pell with molesting L.M. at a Ballarat pool while throwing him from his shoulders. L.M.’s claims formed a key part of Milligan’s book and were featured in her report for the ABC, which devoted an entire 7.30 program to it. In the committal, L.M. said “I don’t remember saying that” when asked why Milligan had recorded him saying Pell had touched his genitals when drying him, and also getting him to touch Pell’s. He agreed that this would be “a complete and utter lie”. He said the reason he might have said this to Milligan was that “I’d asked to be put into a rehab centre” after having “massive mental health issues”, being “in the middle of a complete meltdown”. He added: “It was basically drink, drugs, avoiding people, mass pressure.” He later went to jail. Milligan relied on this man as a witness. Prosecutors withdrew the charges before trial, deciding there was little chance of conviction.

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This clickbait promises revelations of sex abuse BY Pell but it really seems only to rehash the old cover-up allegations. As Pell’s case moves towards acquittal by the high court it looks like his media enemies are still at their mischief.

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Anon@6:05. You speak about a programme to be aired tonight. Have you already seen it, where and when? Are times given UK/ROI times?

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The programme is described as “*cover-up *priests in prison *courts & *churches. And a devastating final.”

Even if he is acquitted, it sounds like he will be rearrested immediately.

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I don’t think that this Revelation programme is going to tell us anything that we didn’t know or hadn’t heard before. It seems opportunistic, particularly in its rescheduling to show now just as we await the High Court’s final appeal verdict. That’s not to diminish its impact on victims and what it says about the Church and its culture of abuse, coverup, and misuse of power.

In the case of Pell I have a feeling that there has very much been a media onslaught against him, both before his trial, during his trail, and after his trail. There is a senses that scores are being settled. I’m not so sure why he engenders such animosity. He seems to have become the lightning rod for the media’s outrage and anger. Whether that is fair or good or just, I’m not so sure. Whilst it is understandable for people to be angry and want revenge, I’m not sure it leads to the best handing down of justice. I suspect that this has happened in Pell’s case. My own feeling is that he will be acquitted by the High Court in Australia, in part because his case and trial were tainted by so much intrusion by the media which makes it very difficult to see his conviction as safe. I’m not saying he never did any of the things he has been accused of, just that in pursuing those things the media shot the justice system in the foot and prevented it from coming up with an iron cast and wholly just process and verdict. I think that will be borne out in the final appeal verdict to come.

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MAGNA CARTA

Dear Deacon Daniel…another sponger in the making with a cute turn of pious phrase.

This guy will peddle platitudes like no other.

Useless.😕

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Will we ever hear the end of the dismal, passive, unimaginative lament about the dying Irish Catholicism? Talking about same-sex marriage as the opposite of Christian faith, as this video does, is an indication of the frozen mental attitudes that have kept us in the bog.

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Thanks, +Pat.
That’s a very informative article.
And there’s a very thought-provoking clip from the series — Det Sgt Faber, NSW Police, speaking about a paedophile-cluster – that’s already up on Twitter –

This issue of paedophile-clusters doesn’t get the attention that it needs. In Ireland it came out in the Judicial Reports on both the Ferns and Dublin Dioceses that some parishes were repeatedly being assigned paedophile-clerics.
And it doesn’t just happen in a religious setting.
I can recall many Local Authority Children’s Home scandals here in Britain; and it’s worrying that it’s been a recurrent issue with some Local Authorities.

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Buckley, Jesus was an innocent man but was still crucified in the cross. I somehow imagine you’d have driven, not one, but several nails through his heart. And done with mocking delight. How you love crucifying others!! God is our ultimate judge – that’s a more sobering thought than your judgments…

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10.31: Well said. While the world is weeping, a supposed Christian Bishop contributes his condemnation. He opines and preaches that God is our final judge…but behaves differently. The civil courts will arbitrate on and judge Cardinal Pell as will the God of Jesus. In the meantime let us use thus coronavirus time to reflect on our own lives: there is much in each heart that can.now be renewed differently.

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There is much for the Catholic Church to reflect on,particularly its handling of CSA, plus the abuse of vulnerable adults. There is also much in all our hearts, as well as in the hearts of the leadership of the Catholic Church, that can now be renewed differently.

“In order to recover from this grievous wound, the Church in Ireland must first acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children”

Pope Benedict XVI March 2010. Pastoral Letter To The Catholic of Ireland.

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10.31

MAGNA CARTA

Gentle Jesus kept quiet while his ‘sacerdotal souls’ (Romanist mooching scum and vermin) fiddled with kids.

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10:31

You fail to mention the nails driven through the heart of Jesus through the crimes of clerics. Also, you fail to mention the nails in the hearts of countless innocent survivors of clerical abuse.

Myopic use of a hammer and nails!

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+ Vincent rededicating England as Mary’s Dowry.

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/12678/hundreds-of-thousands-pray-for-the-conversion-of-england

Nice. But…..

“Dowry” – redolent of past times when women were a chattel and given over by a contract of marriage. Is that what we aspire to today ?

Look at the video. Old fashioned prayers for the conversion of England and that our ‘separated brethren’ come back to unity under the Vicar of Rome. Mmmmm ? Would you, knowing all that we know now about the Roman Catholic Church and its clerical culture and hierarchy ?

This rededication business seems to be a bit off, doesn’t quiet hit the spot, is a bit awkward and gauche.

Thoughts ?

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Anonymous — “31st Mar 2020 at 10:48 am – + Vincent rededicating England as Mary’s Dowry … Thoughts ?”
……………………………
It’s a total load of old flannel.
But “Mary’s Dowry” can be a double-entendre.
Before the Reformation anticlerical elements were using it cynically in reference to the money being raised in rents, tithes etc by the Church or for Church purposes, a lot of it leaving the country for Rome or for France.
Today the Catholic Church in England is sending a lot of money to Africa (which is much the same as sending it to the Cayman Islands, only it sounds better).

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Folks, keep yer kids away from Romanist priests. They are, by nature, kiddie-fiddlers.

(Just warin’ like, y’ know.😯)

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11.21: Thank you Magna…Hope kids are also kept free from you and the many “family members” in our country who abuse, hurt and destroy children. Ask Childline about the huge number of calls from children each day. It is heartbreaking. Any abuse is horrific and perpetrators are criminals. I am appalled at all abuse and cannot express my utter disgust sufficiently that any church personnel would commit the crime of child abuse.

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1.03

You failed to mention any disgust with the policy of cover-up systemically in the Church. More crime!

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1.03

MAGNA CARTA

No, priest, you are not appalled at child abuse…you just like to score cheap points, and abuse kids.

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We have a variety of retired professionals from a variety of backgrounds responding to the current Covid-19 crisis in a variety of ways. Have any retired Bishops anything to say or offer
regarding the global crisis or the situation within the RCC?

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Victoria is corrupt and doesn’t want to reinstate the policeman who uncovered the crimes (and sacked for doing so) and doesn’t want to prosecute Pell for his exhaustively documented dereliction prior to his move to Sydney. The same people that want to divert attention from bad business plans and sexual exploitation simultaneously, also want him portrayed as martyr. Three birds in the bag, voila. Rule of law (where and when it exists) require a trial be ON the present charge. ON the actual present charge for example:

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/264477735/a-case-of-the-man-who-knew-too-much–the-pell-saga

(Part of the picture only.)

Just add in unthorough officals and jurors at the sort of state of wariness many of us might be at.

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Sadly the fate of whistle blowers is virtually always getting shoved out. To be frank it’s a bit difficult to see how anyone would expect a law enforcement organisation to act any other way, especially when you have seen how they function from the inside.

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Anonymoussays: 31st Mar 2020 at 1:08 pm —
……………………………….
I’d agree with absolutely with just about everything you’ve said there.
I don’t think that the evidence against Pell, on the charges he faced, was strong enough for a conviction.
But there’s one thing I don’t believe: that news-report and it’s allegation that Pell’s Defence Team had failed to spot the significance of the rebuilt sacristy. https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/264477735/a-case-of-the-man-who-knew-too-much–the-pell-saga
That’s something I just cannot believe. With such Historic Cases it’s pretty much routine to check-out for any changes to the scenery.
Yes. Innocent people do go to prison, but mostly such victims are vulnerable anyhow – too dim or too old to cooperate in the preparation of their defence and reliant on Legal Aid. Legal Aid rules restrict the quality and quantity of lawyers and also, even more importantly, the time and effort that the lawyers can put in to compiling their defence.
That would not have been the situation here with the Cardinal.

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3.03: I worked in the health service and saw much, horrendous family abuse. I said all ABUSE, whoever the perpetrator, is HORRENDOUS. For a long time family abuse went under the radar because of the focus on institutional abuse and shortage of family social workers and counsellors. I condemn all abuse as reprehensible and criminal as I stated at 1.03. Don’t misread or mislead.

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4.22

MAGNA CARTA

You condemn all such abuse? But you’d rather attention was diverted from the abuse committed, and covered up, by dirty Romanist priest-moochers, wouldn’t you?

Tell me in how many families there is an official policy not to report child abuse to the police? This occurred, and is still happening, in the dirty Romanist Church to protect her dirty, scrounging, kiddie-fiddling priests.

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Damning evidence against Cardinal George Pell | 60 Minutes Australia

In 2015, 60 Minutes presented damning new evidence against Cardinal Pell. He has always argued his intervention on behalf of child abuse victims was innovative, independent and compassionate. But now, secret documents reveal it as a cynical smokescreen designed to protect the Catholic Church at all costs.

Take note of ‘The Melbourne Response’.
Ireland has had it’s ‘go to’ experts.

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I think he used that document as part of his defence, i.e., how could I possibly abuse children when it was me who set-up the Melbourne Response, or something along these lines.

His appointment at the Vatican was also a ruse to get him out of Australia because they knew the authorities were on to him.

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