AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Miranda Devine
Just when you think the demonisation of Cardinal George Pell can’t get any worse, it does. And with every allegation, as flimsy and contagious as they are, comes the damaging insinuation that where there’s smoke there’s fire.
The fanfare around ABC’s 7.30 program last week would make you think Pell has been accused of the most heinous crimes, that he is the master paedophile sitting atop the global paedophile ring that is the Catholic Church.
Some people believe this sick fantasy, or have convinced themselves it is vaguely plausible. Others don’t care about the injustice because they hate Pell, who is that most unloved creature of our times, a conservative Catholic, implacably wedded to Church teachings and unwilling, like his more fashionable brother priests, to accommodate the great causes du jour, same sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.
Victoria Police has been examining the three-decade old allegations for at least 18 months, without attempting to interview Pell, who offered to be interviewed after allegations leaked in February, on the eve of Pell’s testimony to the child abuse royal commission.
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