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SAINT GEORGE PELL – PASTOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE ?

A CATHOLIC publisher is seeking donations from supporters of Cardinal George Pell so that it can release his prison diary, describing it as “a spiritual classic”.

Catholic publisher Ignatius Press hopes to release the diary in instalments, with the first volume likely to be published in 2021.

Ignatius’ editor Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio has sent a letter to email subscribers asking for donations, saying Ignatius wanted to give Cardinal Pell “appropriate advances” for the diary to help offset his legal debts.

“I’ve already read the first half of the journal and it is extraordinary,” Fr Fessio wrote.

“I think it’s going to be a spiritual classic.

“The entire journal is about 1000 pages, so we will print it in three or four volumes.

“With your help, we can proceed with this project and offer Cardinal Pell appropriate advances on these volumes, which he can then use to remove much of the worry he (Cardinal Pell) now has about his legal debts.”

In the diary, it’s understood Cardinal Pell reflects on his time in solitary confinement, politics, and the Church, including his reform efforts at the Vatican.
Cardinal Pell served 13 months in prison before the High Court in April acquitted him of sexual abuse charges involving two choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral during the 1990s.

Cardinal Pell, who rose to become the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, always maintained his innocence.

“His victory was not just a victory for one man,” Fr Fessio wrote.

“It is a victory for the Church. And not just the Church in Australia.

“It revealed to all the world just how far the Church’s enemies will go and how deceitful they will be to discredit her.”

A royal commission into child sexual abuse examined whether Cardinal Pell had knowledge of abuse allegations of a Ballarat priest and a Melbourne bishop in the 1970s and 1980s.

A commission report released in 2017 with sections redacted, was finally made public in full in May this year.

It found Cardinal Pell knew a priest was moved because he had sexually abused children and he should have done more about an unstable priest in another Victorian parish.”

PAT SAYS

We all realise that George Pell’s convictions have all been set aside as unsafe by the Australian courts.

If he was innocent, he has suffered a great injustice.

If he was guilty his victims have suffered a great injustice too.

However, I think it is very grotesque to want to promote him as a great spiritual thinker and guru – and to suggest that people can find God by meditating on his prison journal.

And, selling it to pay off his vast legal expenses is hardly helpful in selling it as a “great spiritual classic”.

Even if Pell is totally innocent he is no Francis if Assisi, no John of the Cross, no Little Flower, no Catherine of Sienna.

What next? Canonising him when he dies?

The RCC is really losing the plot suggesting that Pell is a martyr or holy man.

Like all bishops he did cover up abuse.

And, being a cardinal and a saint are almost totally incompatible notions.

To get to be a cardinal you have to sell your soul.

YESTERDAYS HOMILY BY PAT

I love The bishopbuckleyspodcast | 14TH SUNSAY 6.7.2020, let’s play it!
https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-8ad48-e24184

119 replies on “SAINT GEORGE PELL – PASTOR AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE ?”

Poor, silly George Pell. Does he really think that he can evade the truth about himself?
Jesus ain’t duped. 😁

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And you want us to believe that you, Pat, emulate St. Francis of Assisi, Therese of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross or Jesus? You certainly have put many a cleric through “dark nights of the soul” with your venom, judgments, nastiness, vindictiveness and vengeance. Saintliness doesn’t reside in your being whatsoever….but keep trying.

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Lol @ this reply.
‘Daddy’ doesn’t like the dark underbelly of the church exposed. If you believed the words of the guy you claim to follow you would welcome what you perceive to be persecution, but you don’t.
QED.

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@ 12:16 am
Many survivors of church abuse have been put through ” dark nights of the soul”. In my experience the institutional church does not give sweet fanny adams for survivors.
Just because people can remain silent does not mean they should.
Silence can be another form of violence. Keep up the good work, + Pat.

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@2:17am Think harm management first. Try having a little less. Everyone is different but for me, things started to improve profoundly when I told my story about my church experience publicly. The church practically did SFA and I got some, not much, but some ridicule and some kindness…. but it coincided with my drinking getting remarkably better. Be kind to yourself. Take care… love & prayers. x

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Seriously, Pat, this is hilarious. I particularly think it hilarious that Ignatius press are begging for money for his advance. Why? It’s not like he needs months to write his prison diary and is anyway retired.
If Frank had any sense he would have told him to STFU and if he needed money to spend his days giving retreats to his fanclub.
However the fact he’s going public with his diary (isn’t it remarkable how all RC clerics without exception go ‘poor little me’ at the drop of a hat) is likely to have the outcome of making this cult even less reputable in the eyes of sensible people by exposing even more dirt. It may even force people to go public with counter versions if it’s overly hagiographical.
My only problem is with ‘St’ John Paul II already Patron Saint of paedophiles what would Pell be patron of – investment bankers?

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I expect the proceeds of his “diary” will be reserved for legal expenses for cases pending. Dirty old man,

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Pell’s reputation is now in tatters, irreparably so.
I have been amused today by posts from Pellites expecting everyone to accept the ruling by the Australian High Court in Pell’s favour and to move on.
Some hope.😅

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The church that is described as “The Bride of Christ ” has become the house of Satan.  Anyone with a single ounce of integrity would have to leave. To stay a member today of a broken institution not fit for purpose is to support all the abuse, and corruption that goes on.

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8:53 your message is out of touch with the biblical roots of our faith. God demonstrates his love for us in that it was while we were still in our sin that Christ died for us, as Paul tells us in Romans.

Jesus came to call sinners not those who have no need of reconciliation.

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9.26, your defence could equally have applied to the National Socialist Party.

You are being absurd.

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Bp Pat been warned about that old fagbagger. There’s plenty other old fags in Glasgow she can fagbag.

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Let’s deal with facts, shall we ? First, Pell has not been convicted of any crime, indeed he has specifically been unconvicted by a whole panel of High Court of Appeal judges. So, he is not guilty of anything in law. If people continue to claim that he is, then that is slander. Of course, you will get away with slander because Pell hasn’t the resources or the will to come after you in a legal process. But, morally speaking, it is unfair to slander the man. If you have proof of any wrongdoing then the place to deal with that is through the police and legal process, which has already happened and he has been definitively found not guilty.
Second, Pell has already paid a very heavy price for what has happened to him. It’s a price that would have crushed and destroyed many of us. One aspect of this will be a financial price, mostly legal fees, that he has been constrained to incur in order to defend himself. It seems absolutely reasonable to me that he uses whatever means he can to help defray these costs, including the gifts of well wishers, and proceeds from his memoirs. How else will he pay these fees otherwise ?
I hold no candle for Pell. He is not my kind of person, I think. His churchmanship is not from my tradition or background. I think he might well be a big, bruiser, bully, and I would not like to have come up against him. But, he is innocent by judgement of the Australian High Court. We must respect that. I am sorry for anybody who feels that they have been a victim of his, but we cannot let truth be overridden by sympathy, compassion and wanting to make it better for those who believe they have been victims. Truth is what trumps everything, and the truth has been established and stated by the High Court judgement, and that is it ! Case over. Let us leave Pell to live out the rest of his days in peace.

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9-28 am

Was truth in the Pell case established by the Australian High Court judgement ?

The issue today is;
A catholic publisher, who happens to be a priest, is seeking donations from supporters of Cardinal Pell wanted to give Pell “appropriate advances” for the diary to help offset his legal debts. The publisher is describing the diary as ‘extraordinary’ and thinks it is going to be “a spiritual classic”. Two volumes, of course! That is today’s issue.

Pell chose to employ a celebrity lawyer who apparently charged enormous fees. Tough!
What is extraordinary is to discredit spiritual classics by cynically aligning Pells publication
alongside them. Pell continues to remain in the public domain rather than living out the rest of his days in peace. Maybe some of his fanatical supporters still consider him papabile.

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@ 9:43

1. Truth ? Do tell me what other avenues or mechanisms for arriving at the truth you can think of, if not the judgement of the High Court of Appeal of Australia ?

2. I doubt if Pell’s memoirs will be a ‘spiritual classic’, but it might be an interesting read to hear his side of events and what he went through. I reserve judgement until such time as I have read his memoirs.

3. Given the serious nature of the charges that Pell faced, do you blame him for employing good counsel, which will inevitably have cost a great deal of money ? I would. I think you would, too. Of course, now he has to face the bill.

4. Papabile ? Really ? Get a grip, man !

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10.01, it’s not quite as cut and dried as you imagine. Pell WAS convicted and his appeal against the conviction WAS rejected. That is something the public will not forget.
I, for one, believe that he was rightly convicted and that he remains a serious danger to young boys.

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Victoria has some very strange rules on jury majorities.
Also, perhaps a weak prosecution was deliberately mounted.

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Your contributions have enhanced the blog since they began. Please keep it up. Balanced and fair snd extremely articulate and insightful. And persuasive.

9:28

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9.28, your naievity is almost touching.

The truth has been established by the Australian High Court? Has it indeed? In your opinion, it has. But in the opinion of very many others, the High Court got it wrong: Pell is guilty. That indeed is it…for very many of us.

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7.46, yes, they impressed me, too. They, and the indoor pool attendant who caught a naked George Pell drying himself in front of youg boys, his penis fully exposed to them. The attendant went off to do something, but when he returned, five or ten minuted later, Pell was still naked, still apparently drying himself. The attendant did not like what he was seeing, ordered the boys to finish dressing and leave. Once they did, he turned to Pell and said: I know what you were up to, Georgie. If you ever come back here, I’ll call the police.
I believe the accounts by these men; the pool attendant especially had no axe to grind against Pell.
In my opinion, George Pell is a dangerous and dirty old Catholic priest.
As a Catholic, he knows that restitution for sin is obligatory before forgiveness can follow.
I believe that George Pell lied in court in order to escape justice. He cannot expect mercy from God until he puts this right.

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6:38 pm
I don’t think 9:28 is so naive.
I suspect he is a wee bit mischievous trying to give false impressions.
He should read the judgement before making his pronouncements.
He needs to get a grip on the reality of whats gone on in the church

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Off topic, Pat, but I was struck by the amounts of monies religious orders have on reserve, mentioned yesterday. So much for vows of poverty!
Phonsie has two donate buttons on W&L website. One donate button for the support of local priests and another donate button for an evangelization fund.
Do dioceses or parishes have ‘rainy day’ funds or accounts?

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10-01 am

My understanding is Pell was freed on a legal technicality.
I would not waste my time reading his ‘memoirs’.
Many innocent people have served much longer periods of imprisonment for crimes they never committed. What’s so special about Pell other than him being a Cardinal and the most high ranking Catholic cleric to be imprisoned for child sexual abuse.
Pells lawyer was not only a ‘good counsel’ but described in media reports as a celebrity lawyer. Pells legal fees will be in the millions. Most people could never afford to employ such a person. Then again, Cardinals in the Catholic church appear to be very wealthy individuals. Former Cardinal McCarrick was giving payments of thousands of dollars to high profile Vatican clerics, including two former Popes.
Finally, supporters of Pell were considering him papabile during his initial trial.
I consider him another cover up cleric regardless of his innocence or guilt in this case.
My understanding is there are several civil cases in train against Pell.
There might be a volume three publication by Pell before too long!

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11:08
You used to post here under a pseudonym. And your material was as peevish there as here. And just as imbalanced. You’ve met your match in 10.07.

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Did I read yesterday that + Nichols is just biding his time before he cuts the pensions of his retired priests ? This blog seems to have put him off first time round, so maybe a hue and cry might persuade him to desist now ? Especially, since we know from the Charity Commission that Westminster has tens of millions of £s in investments, and that will only be the tip of the iceberg of their assets. I do wonder when + Nichols retires, will he be taking a reduced amount for his retirement needs as he seems to want the rest of his retired priests to do ? What is good for the goose is good for the gander, surely ? + Nichols, if you or one of your apparatchiks is reading this, you really should be ashamed to go for the soft underbelly of your diocese in order to save money ! Your name is shite among your priests. They can’t wait of you to be gone. No surprises there, when you treat them like you do.

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Elsie has said other dioceses are already cutting retired priests money so he will feel justified doing the same.

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I seem to remember it was only a few years ago that there was a big fundraising drive for the retired priests fund. What’s happened to that. I remember being told by the professional fundraisers that based on my postcode, age, income and profile etc. that I should be giving X amount to the appeal. Bloody cheek. And now look what is happening. Looks like + Elsie just wants to snaffle the lot for himself and tell the retired priests to rely on Universal Credit. He’s a cruel one, that + Elsie.

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Westminster diocese was able to buy Michael Seed’s old friary in Francis Street for £8.6m, to open a fee-paying pre-prep school for the already privileged children of bankers and yummy mummys.

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Previous Anonymous is right. Let’s see what he has to say. Even Judas made it into scripture. Who is the real judge 👨‍⚖️ hi. 🤥 How many of our personal judgments are transference.

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Denis Hart used to write Georges essays for him in the seminary….George Pell, i can understand was very bored by pedestrian Werribee !!!!

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Elsie is not happy about the blog today!
Westminister Clergy have known for a long time not
to trust him !

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Oooppps, sorry to upset + Elsie’s lunch and siesta. That didn’t take long for him to know what was being said. I think this blog is checked regularly by + Elsie and his minions. Remember, Vinnie, the only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about ! Take heart !

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I do think Pell has every right to write a book and tell his side of the story.
But he’s not Thomas Merton.

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I’m glad that Cardinal Pell is not like Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton was an alcoholic and he committed suicide.
He had a love affair when he was in his 40’s. He was then already a writer and spiritual celebrity of sorts. He was a cloistered monk at Gethsemane in Kentucky and he had written his bestselling Seven Story Mountain and other books. He was married to the Catholic Church.
Then hospitalised for back problems he fell in love with a nurse (whom he referred to as “M”). And she with him. They resisted, connected, pulled back, cried, committed, talked, broke up, tried again and loved each other. The relationship was consummated in a garden near the hospital and they made love there and in Merton’s cloister near the Abbey. Some other monks knew and some sort of knew and others didn’t know at all.

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I was aware of his “lifestyle”. But he still wrote well and deeply. He was passionate in all sorts of ways 😀

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By the 1960s Merton wasn’t the ascetic that his groupies imagine him to have looked like. He was a Friar Tuck/Pablo Picasso lookalike.

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11.49, I’d leave my teenaged sons alone with Thomas Merton were he alive. Under no circumstances would I leave them alone with Pell.

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Has he the right to tell lies? To present his accuser as a liar if that man indeed told the truth?
Has he the right to present himself as the victim of a massive miscarriage of justice (because this is what he will do) if indeed he was guilty of those appalling crimes?
George Pell would have made better judgement by remaining silent for the rest of his life. But he himself has chosen to continue stirring things by maintaining a high public profile and by continuing as a source of bitter division, just like that other bastard, Sean Brady.
If my admittance to Heaven depends on my offering even momentary respect to either of these loathsome men, I’ll happily burn in Hell.

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Littleton is still wearing a maniple, and it doesn’t even match the set of vestments he wears. What is this guy about ? + Wilson really does need to sort him out. What nonsense.

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12.02 Oh get a life – whilst I have never worn a maniple as a priest, it’s not something that I would get wound up about. Why not get upset about the injustice of student nurses paid placements being cut for example?

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George Pell is a Good Man. No more to say.
Why has the accuser ( the other is dead and categorically said that he was not harmed)not waived his anonymity if Justice has been trampled ? Scottish number involved.
It has not…

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11:51 am
Merton fell in love. That’s not a crime.
I don’t recall him having been in court on CSA charges.
Many a man and women left the monastery. A monk friend of mine told me if he felt the Lord wanted him ” to leave the monastery in the morning, he would”.
People need to cop on.

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12:17 pm
Whether George Pell is a good man is not the issue.
Does it particularly matter why the accuser has not come forward?

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Damian Thompson said that people will be astonished when the name of the living false accuser comes out. Damian knows but won’t say who it is because of libel laws.

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9.27, that is implicitly what Pope Francis said of Pell’s accuser when Pell’s unanimous conviction, and his failed appeal, were overturned by just seven high court judges.
But then, what can one reasonably expect these days but low moral standards from Christ’s so-called ‘vicar’? 😅

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Thompson is shallow and erratic and is probably building up to a stunt on behalf of his minders / handlers.

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Merton was the most profound spiritual writer of the last couple of hundred years…..that is not to indict all the good writers and there are many …..Andre Louf ………Sebastian Moore.(The Inner Loneliness I still mine to try to understand) was every bit as good but in a different orbit….Mertons interface with the earth we all tread lifts him to greatness…..not unconnected with his life experience and humanity. If you have not read him do not pronounce on him…if you have …..go ahead ….

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Renowned German Benedictine and Pope ‘guru’ claims “there are no theological reasons against the priesthood of women”
Father Anselm Grün, who is also a prolific and highly-successful author of books of spiritual guidance – having sold 15 million copies of his writings in 30 languages all over the world – made the remarks on the priesthood of women to the Augsburg diocesan weekly newspapers Neue Bildpost and Katholische Sonntagszeitung.
Given the lack of theological impediments to female priests, Grün, a monk of the Münsterschwarzach Abbey, said he “certainly has hope” that they will exist in 100 years.
Talking to the diocesan publications, Grün also ventured some predictions on the state of ecumenism in a century, although on that point he was less positive than on women priests. A hundred years from now, there will be still be separate churches, the Benedictine anticipated.
But, Grün said, the still-separate denominations of the coming century “will not fight against each other, but will witness together to faith in Christ. And they will invite each other to make the love of Jesus visible in this world and thus become together the leaven of hope for this world”, the Benedictine explained.
In a March 2018 interview, Grün highlighted that “there are no theological reasons that speak against an abolishment of priestly celibacy or against female priests, female bishops, or a female pope. Only here it is about historical processes”.
Such “processes” take time, the Benedictine pointed out, insisting that “the first step has to be now the ordination of women as deacons”.
Other time-dependent processes of Church reform Grün pointed to include the possible abolition of compulsory priestly celibacy – “that should be free for each individual to decide upon” – and the full acceptance of gay priests. The Benedictine said he knew and worked with some homosexuals in the clergy “and there are good priests”.
But Grün doesn’t just think about Church reform – he’s taking concrete steps on the ground, too, to make it happen.
The monk has openly admitted to inviting Protestants to receive Communion in the Masses he offers in his courses in the guest house of the Münsterschwarzach monastery, and proclaimed that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception can be applied to all humanity since “we all are, from the beginning of the world, chosen in Christ to be holy and without stain”.
Grün also lamented in 2019 that Francis “finds himself in a certain tense situation” since “he would like to continue with his reforms” but “he also wishes not to provoke a split of the Church”.

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13.19

Yes he did…..but every political leader is at it in the Western World. Governments now protecting teachers in this Republic….for CSA….Ian Eliott should be let loose in the Depts of Education, Social Welfare and Health…..but its locked down by recent legislation for the next 75 years….There are many Sean Bradys who have had Government Mercs and BMWs and other brands down the years….

Not a justification for Pell…I just state a fact. I would have none of it !!!!

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So as not to disappoint, let me ask where is Littletosser on the subject of Pell ? I’m pretty sure he will have been a supporter of Pell and saw the whole episode as an attack of the wicked world on a saintly man and an attempt by the devil to undermine the Church – or shit like that. You can see and hear him saying it. Maybe he’s got a video on the subject ?

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Aaaahhh, Pell, Littletosser and + Elsie ! My favourite characters of late. All together on the blog today. Wonderful !

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I am a person who has personal contact with Cardinal Pell. He is one of the few Churchman I have met who has genuine interest and concern with every person he meets. He is not like a lot of prelates who would celebrate the liturgy and then look for the first opportunity to escape people. Cardinal Pell would stay to speak to every man and woman who come forward. He would be genuinely interested in their lives. As William Mulvahill has enunciated in his interventions here, Pell is a good man. He respected each person. If he held a different position than you he would respect you but argue his position. No one was excluded because they held differing positions. He would enunciate the Catholic faith as he knew it clearly and if he needed to correct a priest who did not present what he had promised at his ordination to preach he would do so but still look after the welfare of each person.
I always knew him as someone really interested in the welfare and development of young people. He encouraged them to flourish. I never ever sensed a man with a carnal desire about young people, just his desire that they use all their gifts to the best. The line of accusations that have been made about him seem to relate to the fact that he has been made into the personification of the Catholic Church. Anyone with a gripe or a just claim against the Church has sometimes made the Cardinal the symbol of all of this. As an Australian man of his own era, he is not the type who wears his heart on his sleeve, Some made read this as an indifference to the sufferings of others, I can attest from my own experience that he is indeed a caring man and a just man, who would do what ever he could to assist a person in need.
Regarding the matter of the publication of the Cardinal’s memoir from prison. he is not presenting himself as a saint or a guiro. He is simply recording the thoughts of a man of faith experiencing the unique situation of a man in solitary confinement: what this means personally and how a person of faith can address such situations,
I know that the inheritance that the Cardinal received from his parents has been devoted to the education of people in need through a special trust. Any monies that he has accrued through his own service to the Church has been spent in his legal defence. This was to defend a judgement that the highest court in Australia by a unanimous decision quashed! This was not a legal technicality but a judgement that there was no evidence to support the conviction! In our system of law a quashed judgement indicates that the original judgement was erroneous. Please do not make ther Cardinal the whipping boy for all of the ills of the Church. He is a just man and a good man.

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Thanks for posting this link, 1.32.
Yes, Pell was incredibly lucky to have had his convictions quashed in the Australian High Court.

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I have left the Catholic Church. I am coming to know my happiness again . It is not unconnected with my freedom to think as I am…uncoupled from the colonising power of a dysfunctional Empire which seeks like The Borg ( Star Trek) to assimilate.
I can count on two hands the priests who really influenced me;
One I shall not name…..without wax.
Fr Tommy Mc Geough ( Armagh)
Fr John Bradley ( Armagh)
Fr Kevin Moran ( Armagh)
Fr Michael Morgan ( Melbourne)
Fr Barry Moran ( Melbourne)
and
George Pell……and he would not know why…and never will…I know who he helped, when and how often…..and he did and does it often. I do not subscribe
It has something to do with what a priest essentially is….if someone needs your help…you help without judgement…( where there is no crime of course )

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…….I do not subscribe to his Ecclesiology ( that is of no significance in my life anymore) at all…at all !
And probably ….Fr Tom Doyle……am inspiring man….but I did not come to know him well….unfortunately.

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Bring back Dean Kennedy ! Deans’ Lives Matter ! Take The Knee Where is he these days ? He was able to add so much glee and joy to our lives not so many years ago. I miss him !!

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In reply to 09.26 – You can use all the pious words you like. But that does not excuse the pedophilia, financial abuse, sexual harassment of seminarians and novices, lies, double standards, hypocrisy, e.t.c that goes on in the” church ” today destroying people’s faith, life, or vocation. The trouble is with the image you present of the church in the words and language you use is most people clergy like me journey
with view the institutional church as full of pedophiles, after their money, power-hungry, and what it has to say as utterly irrelevant to their every day life.

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5.29: You are correct Pat. The Archbishop us making only the necessary minimum of changes out of respect for his successor, yet to be announced, but also because of the present health environment. It is unwise to make changes other than what’s relevant.

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That sounds good. It’s not a time for people to be moving all over the place and the new man will want to put his stamp on things.

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2.11: Father Richard, you seem very confused. I despise and abhor all abuse too but I stay and do my utmost to be true and genuine – albeit with great difficulty – to what I know God expects of me. I sense an unease and anger in your comment which is not healthy in any way. We clergy are in a huge dilemma….it is necessary for us to reflect and pray for strength and courage at this time.

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I have never heard of this chap. Obviously he is not a priest of the Roman Catholic Church and is a member of some free Catholic organisation.

I imagine he should be judged like we all are – on the basis of the fruits we produce?

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He claims he is a priest and bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. The website of the Catholic Church of England and Wales declares that they are Valid and Licit Catholics, and has photographs of their Archbishop meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and concelebrating masses in the Vatican.
If his archbishop is recognised by the Vatican as a valid Bishop, then Dom Philip James French OSB and St Ninians Whitby is too recognised by the Roman Catholic Church.

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Why is a Catholic publisher seeking donations for the publication of a book by George Pell that the publisher himself described as a ‘spiritual classic’. There is something fishy here. If the book is as good as described, then it will sell itself.

I think people are being duped. The publisher bears the costs of publication, and will not publish any book he thinks will not at least recoup him his outlay.

I think this is just a ruse to get people to pay Pell’s enormousb egal bill, and Pell’s gullible supporters will probably chip in considerably.

I believe that Pell is guilty of the crimes for which, in my opinion, he was rightly convicted and whose appeal against the conviction was quashed.

I wouldn’t contribute one Australian cent to any cause that bears the name of that revolting man, George Pell.

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A reply -Anonymoussays: 6th Jul 2020 at 4:34 pm
Firstly I note you do not have the courtesy to let us know who you are. Secondly, you know nothing about me, or the people I minister to so you are in no way in a position to say ” you seem very confused” or “I sense unease and anger in your comment which is not healthy in any way.”
I have no unease. I am very happy in my vocation to be a Priest.
We are all well aware of the tactics of the institution to go for character assassination on those who make complaints , or raise uncomfortable truths.
Finally, you may not like the message, but that does not change what people tell me who live in the community around me, or when they come here in pain, and suffering when they have been hurt and abused in so many ways by ” Holy Mother Church .”
To make the comments, and accusations you have is disgraceful as it does no justice to the dignity of these people , and adds further pain to them after suffering so much.

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6.44: Fr. Richard… OTT of a response to 4.34: You are overly sensitive. You completely misread 4.34. You are an ANGRY cleric…undoubtedly.

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From the blog, occasional scribbles, of Fr Michael Commane op, 03 July 2020.

The post on this blog for June 26 consisted of an open letter to Gregory Carroll, the provincial of the Irish Dominican Province.

The open letter dealt with the free-sheet Alive and the relationship between the free-sheet and the Irish Dominicans.

Some days later this blog wrote to the free-sheet, seeking information on the editorial team of Alive. Who is the current editor of the free-sheet?

So far there has been no reply from the provincial or the free-sheet.

It displays the poorest of management skills not to reply to correspondence.

Gregory Carroll has been provincial of the Irish province for a long, sad and lethargic eight years. In that time he has earned a reputation for not replying to correspondence.

It simply is not good enough and he should be held to account for his behaviour.

As to the fact that the free-sheet Alive has not replied to the correspondence, simply is another reminder of the type of journalism that it peddles on every page in every edition.

There is something systemically wrong with the Irish Catholic Church at present. And it seems there is little or no interest in attempting to examine, and subsequently putting to right the malaise.

Of course there are great people right across the organisation but it seems those with influence at present belong to a dark merciless right-wing grouping, that always seems to have the ability and resources to raise its ugly head.

And then there are those underlying serious problems that are never mentioned.

The church has a knack of talking the talk. Dioceses and religious congregations talk about their treasured ethos and charism. Unfortunately, those words today are synonymous for spoof, gobbledegook, laziness and crass mismanagement.

And no importation of right-wing evangelical-style US religion is the answer.

It is a tragedy.

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The ‘open letter’ posted by fr Michael Commane op to the irish Dominican provincal, fr Gregory Carroll op , on June 26th. It was posted on the blog ‘occasional scribbles ‘
Dear Gregory Carroll,
Is it possible that the Irish Dominican Province would immediately disassociate itself from the free-sheet Alive.
Last evening’s RTE’s Prime Time featured an item on new nationalist political parties in Ireland.
The programme screened clips of talks given by Jemma O’Doherty and John Waters. It also included short interviews with far-right supporters.
The Prime Time programme showed worrying trends of how anti-racial sentiment is garnering support in the country. It included violent and vulgar words written by far-right sympathisers.
In the current issue of the free-sheet Alive John Waters writes a page-long rambling article on his opinions and views.
In the same piece Mr Waters is highly critical of Pope Francis on the matter of immigration.
That the Irish Dominican Province advertises for vocations on the free-sheet suggests the Dominicans are calling on far-right people to join the province.
As an Irish Dominican, I find it intolerable that Dominicans should in any way whatsoever be associated with the free-sheet Alive.
I would appreciate a reply to this open letter so that I can be made aware of your opinion on the link between the free-sheet Alive and the Irish Dominican Province.
Best wishes.
Michael Commane.

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Does this man not have secretarial support? Staff who will deal with letters and email?

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Why would someone with a reputation for not replying to correspondence be re-elected, or, for that matter, be elected in the first place? It’s hard to have sympathy for the electors.

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6.44: Your response to my comment at 4.34 confirms my original point. There is an anger in your to be but, like my anger, hopefully, a righteous anger. I too, Fr. Richard, am only too well aware of the consequences of the sexual abuses and other abuses of power perpetrated by our colleagues, high and low. I cannot condemn sufficiently, as I’m sure you do. But – what do we do other than condemn and express our outrage? Apart from the fact that we feel this is my life’s vocation/work, how can you and I remain in an institution with so tainted a legacy, a legacy which has left deep, almost irreparable, hurt and wounds in so many? How can you and I, as priests, in conscience, stay with this institution? These are the more pertinent questions and issues I’d like to reflect on, not the imagined ones you attribute to me. Your reaction, may, inadvertently, reveal an unease within you – but like my unease and anger – hopefully constructive and righteous that prompts us to be seen to be doing something genuine and sincere to reverse, renew and change what we live in and with! That’s more my concern now, Fr. Richard!

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7:54 pm
If you want to do something genuine and sincere to reverse, renew and to change, make it a reality by organizing as a collective and demand change! Are the powers that be going to kick a collective group out of the priesthood? Silence is, in my view, a cowards response at this stage.Unless there is collective action, reform, renewal and change will simply remain mere empty rhetoric.

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8.37: I agree with you but when you are 72 and not in great health, what do you do? I keep a parish as vibrant as I am able to do. There are wonderful parishioners who are supportive and gifted. I am an optimist – I have to be but I am deeply conscious of all that I would like to but which seems too overwhelming…It is frustrating but I must focus on the best I can do..

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I could not nail my colours to any mast more clearly ; George Pell is everything Dermot Martin is not……opposites….there is more diversity within the Catholic Church than outside it: the mirror is contemporaneously Hong Kong, may the gods be with the Hong Kong Cardinal as he battles the Argentine Emptiness..

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Pat
Very sad that Vincent Nichols is cutting the monthly stipend to priests in his diocese from September. Money saved to go into the archbishops council fund.
Priests afraid to speak out. Carmel is loosing her influence.

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