UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
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.
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