Australian cardinal ‘guilty of child abuse’, media censored

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This 1 March 2016 video from the USA is called Cardinal George Pell is apathetic about pedophiles, Trump’s running mate?

Another, July 2016, video used to say about itself:

Les Tyack says he saw a naked George Pell expose himself to three young boys in the Torquay surf club changerooms in the late 1980s. Police are investigating multiple child abuse allegations levelled directly against Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, the ABC’s 7.30 program has revealed.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Media in Australia can not report anything about ‘the country’s biggest story’

Cardinal Pell, the third man of the Vatican, is thought to have been found guilty in Australia of abusing two altar boys. We do not know whether that is true, because Australian media are being censored about the trial.

“Everything about this trial, including the charges, is kept secret”, says correspondent Robert Portier in the NOS Radio 1 news. “This is due to a publication ban that the judge imposed on Australian media.”

“There are two cases against Pell, both about abuse of children, and the judge does not want the two different juries to be influenced by publicity from the other one”, says Portier. This case was about the abuse of two altar boys. He is said to have forced them into oral sex in the back of a cathedral.

‘Biggest story’

“You can imagine that Australian media are not happy with the publication ban. “It’s the nation’s biggest story”, a frustrated Daily Telegraph shouted on its front page”, says Portier. The Herald Sun also revolted and made three-quarters of its front page black with the word “censored” above it.

Many Australians are therefore dependent on social media because of the ban on publication. “It is of course a bit of a weird discussion, because in 2018 you can get that news in all possible ways.” News media outside of Australia are not covered by the ban and they publish sparingly about the case. “In Australia, the cardinal was trending on all social media, so Australians really know something about it”, says Portier.

The case is followed closely because Pell has such a high position in the Catholic Church. “He was archbishop in Melbourne and is a cardinal, he can not go any higher

except by becoming pope

and he actually belonged to the top three in the Catholic Church”, says Paul van Geest, professor of church history. “He was a kind of Minister of Economic Affairs in the reforms in Vatican City and was therefore very visible.”

According to the professor, Pell has been accused of sexual abuse since the 1990s, even before he was a bishop. “And when the abuse within the Catholic Church became notorious his name was always mentioned, yet he was spared because he was so high in the Catholic Church.”

The cardinal has always strongly denied the accusations. On 19 January he will hear what his punishment is.

From the Daily Telegraph (the British paper, not the Australian one), 12 December 2018:

Pope removes two cardinals linked to sex abuse allegations from his inner circle

By Josephine McKenna, Rome

Two leading cardinals allegedly linked to sexual abuse have been dismissed from Pope Francis’ inner circle.

Australian Cardinal George Pell and Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz have been removed from the so-called C9 Council of Cardinals, an advisory body set up by Francis, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

Cardinal Pell, appointed head of the Vatican’s economic secretariat by the pope in 2014, has taken a leave of absence to fight allegations of historic sexual misconduct in Australia.

He is still officially in charge of Vatican finances, a position considered one of the most powerful in the Catholic hierarchy.

Francisco Errazuriz Ossa has been accused of covering up allegations against abusive priests in Chile. …

The Catholic Church has been hit by a series of child abuse scandals in recent years in countries including the US, Ireland, Chile and [Iceland], with widespread allegations of cover-ups against clergy, including the pope himself.

Mr Errazuriz … was archbishop of Santiago from 1998-2010.

He has come under fire in recent months amid claims that he hid the crimes of Chile’s allegedly abusive priests including Fernando Karadima, who has been accused of a string of child sex offenses going back to 1984.

[Rupert Murdoch‘s] News Corp’s Miranda Devine says police are ‘hunting Catholics’ after George Pell charges. Columnist launches attack on Victorian police chief as force insists investigation of cardinal followed usual procedure for allegations of historical sex offences: here.