Australian Cardinal Pell - High Court unanimously throws out his sex abuse charge; freed after year in solitary confinement

 

A gross miscarriage of justice overturned.

Her are four links to articles -

The Catholic League - has a very good review of the facts of the case  - Cardinal Pell is a Free Man

Here is what the High Court said about this matter. “The assumption that a group of choristers, including adults, might have been so preoccupied with making their way to the robing room as to fail to notice the extraordinary sight of the Archbishop of Melbourne dressed ‘in his full regalia’ advancing through the procession and pinning a 13 year old boy to the wall, is a large one.” That is putting it mildly. It is preposterous.

National Review - Cardinal George Pell Walks Free

The only question that ought to matter in the Pell case is Did he do it? His accuser claims he did. But on being released, Pell said the High Court’s decision “was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how church authorities in Australia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the church. The point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, and I did not.”

America Magazine - The High Court of Australia announced via Twitter that in a unanimous 7-0 decision

The cardinal, who has maintained his innocence throughout, was convicted on the testimony of one of the choir boys, who only decided to go to the Victoria police in 2015 after attending the funeral of the other alleged victim, who had died of a heroin overdose.

Catholic Culture - Lessons to be Learned from Cardinal Pell's Case

The victim of his injustice, Cardinal Pell himself, has been admirably serene throughout his ordeal. Rather than complaining about his confinement, the cardinal said that he was using his time in jail as an “extended retreat.” He refused to engage in polemics and urged his supporters to have faith in the Australian justice system—showing a confidence that few of those supporters shared. “I hold no ill will toward my accuser,” he said after the High Court ordered his release. “I do not want my acquittal to add to the hurt and bitterness so many feel; there is certainly hurt and bitterness enough.”

 

Comments

[Eileen Peterson]

Praise God for wonderful news!