Pope Francis Must Fire Cardinal Pell Now, by Jerry Slevin, Christian Catholicism (February 11, 2015)

Pope Francis is facing a critical test that will show whether he is a trustworthy leader or just another hierarchical hypocrite. Is Francis for the 99.99% Catholic faithful or for the 0.01% Catholic hierarchy?

The pope must fire forthwith his top money man, Cardinal George Pell, who exited Australia last year in a real hurry. We now know why! Australia’s Royal Commission has just found after two years of investigation that Pell fought a legal claim by an abuse victim, John Ellis, to discourage others from attempting the same. Pell spent, in effect, more than $1,000,000 fighting Ellis despite him asking for just a tenth of that amount in settlement, and put him through “distressing and unnecessary cross-examination” and threatened him with legal costs. Pell is not fit to manage Church money in a Christian manner.

The Royal Commission’s report also confirmed that the Australian Catholic Church, in which Pell had been the top leader for years, repeatedly failed in its dealings with victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of priests.A copy of the full report can be found here.

Pope Francis is losing all credibility on his promises to curtail the priest abuse scandal and to hold bishops like Pell accountable. The pope is relying, instead, on an almost farcical sex abuse commission. The pope’s commission is being exposed steadily to be no more than a classic political stall tactic in the form of an extremely unfocused, open ended, conflicted, inefficient and understaffed “study commission”, that is being orchestrated apparently by disgraced Boston Cardinal Bernard Law’s former canon lawyer, Fr. Robert Oliver. Please see, “NY Times Pulls Punches As SNAP Jabs Pope & US Pols On Abuse Ploys“, here,

Catholics cannot be expected to donate to and support, and many will no longer donate to and support, the pope if he continues to leave Pell in charge of handling the Church’s finances. It is that simple, really. The pope can surely find a competent financial executive, female or male, to replace Pell and the pope needs to do so pronto.

Pell excessively defended Mr Ellis’ claim in order to discourage other prospective plaintiffs from litigating claims of child sexual abuse against the Church. The Royal Commission agreed with Cardinal Pell’s evidence that he as Archbishop did not act fairly from a Christian point of view in the conduct of the litigation against Mr Ellis.

The Catholic Code of Canon Law already provides the way for Pope Francis to deal with cardinals and bishops like Pell. The pope has full power and authority over all of the Church which he is always able to exercise freely (cc. 331, 333, §1 and 590, §1). And nothing in Church law prohibits the application of Church law by the pope regarding the removal of bad cardinals and bishops.

Significantly, Pope Francis has even inexcusably to date failed to appoint Fr. Tom Doyle, respected canon lawyer, a Dominican priest in good standing and the world’s top expert on curtailing priest child abuse, to the illusory sex abuse commission. Fr. Doyle and the pope both worked, at different times within a few years of each other, under the same Cardinal, Pio Laghi. Why is Tom Doyle being overlooked? What is the pope afraid of ? Please appoint Tom Doyle now and move on, Pope Francis! Cardinal Law’s canon lawyer being in charge is an insult to all Catholics.

The pope’s advisory commission now will take at least two more years to “study and stall” — likely then a full four years of Pope Francis’s short papacy to change nothing of substance. Meanwhile, Pope Francis continues to honor disgraced Cardinals, including Law, Rigali and Danneels, and now Pell as well, who have demonstrably poor records on dealing with priest sexual abusers.