UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

As Pope Francis continues apparently to try to fool Catholics with his “bait and switch” strategy, it is helpful to consider Cardinal Pell, Francis’ new choice to maximize the Vatican’s considerable wealth. Pell’s recently revealed and ruthless treatment of victims of Australian priests’ child abuse makes some Wall Street investment bankers’ approach to making money seem beneficent, it appears.

Pell’s significance has been captured well recently by Fr. Thomas Doyle, O.P., the leading worldwide advocate for over a quarter century of justice for priest abuse survivors.

Fr. Doyle in the 1980′s had futilely advised Pope John Paul II’s US representative, Cardinal Pio Laghi, on priest child abuse curtailment policy. Laghi had just finished overseeing the Argentina Catholic Church’s self serving cooperation with a brutal military in the “Dirty War”, while Pope Francis assisted him, as the local Jesuit provincial, by trying to suppress…