ROME
Sydney Morning Herald
Nick Miller
Rome: It was the feast of St Peter and St Paul in Rome, a day of celebration, worship – and, for many Romans, an afternoon at the beach.
By ancient tradition, the devout were expected to be up all the previous night remembering the church’s martyrs.
In the early hours of the morning, Cardinal Pell received the news he had been expecting: he had been charged on summons by Victorian Police with multiple historic sex offences.
There was no arrest, no knock on his door from the Italian police (Pell lives in an apartment just outside the walls of Vatican City, around the corner from St Peter’s).
Indeed, there was no sign of movement at his home at all – though he was home.
As the sun rose a queue began to form across the road: nuns, tourists, the faithful and the curious queuing to go through metal detectors into St Peter’s Square facing the basilica. Vatican workers were hard at work setting up for the afternoon Mass.
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