GEORGE PELL HAS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE CONTROVERSIAL.
The decision to have him lie in state in the Cathedral in Sydney, have a Mass attended by thousands, and then buried in the Cathedral crypt on February 2nd seems to me to be unnecessarily insensitive to victims of clerical sexual abuse.
George Pell was not found INNOCENT by the Australian High Court.
His conviction was found to be UNSAFE.
Total innocence and an unsafe conviction are two very different things.
Pell admitted himself that he had failed victims as a bishop and archbishop.
But right-wing Catholics all over the world now want Pell to be regarded as a Saint and white martyr.
The truth is that Pell was a typical RC bishop – arrogant, self willed, in denial of truth, and probably absolutely cynical.
I think that, like Keith O’Brien, Pell should have had a private funeral and burial.
Now, Pell is being used by right-wing RC clerics and laity as a SAINT of the right – to promote the Latin Mass, to oppose the Francis Papacy, and to attack the Synodal Path and bring us all back to the 16th century.
I think it’s deeply worrying that a man who was accused of paedophilia and not found innocent by a jury of his peers should be hailed like this – especially when he covered up abuse.
It’s a perfect example of the craziness of the vicious war between the Catholic right and left.
GEORGEOUS GEORGE TO BE EVICTED
Pope Francis has told Benedict’s companion to move out of where he lived with Benedict by February 1st.
Some think that Francis is being very harsh.
I’m sure George is in mourning for Benedict. Maybe he should have been given a little more time?
But he is occupying a whole monastery on his own.
Maybe George should be given a sabbatical?
But he joined the priesthood to be a pastor.
After a break, perhaps it’s time he became a pastor and back in his native Germany?
The Archdiocese of Paderborn is vacant.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 