AUSTRALIA
News Weekly
by Anne Lastman
News Weekly, June 3, 2017
A professional counsellor for more than 20 years, Anne Lastman specialises in dealing with post-abortion grief and helping victims of child sexual abuse.
Louise Milligan’s tome, Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, is no more than an exercise in reputation deconstruction and assassination. Even the title of this book gets the reader interested because it mentions “the rise and fall of George Pell”. This is an assured seller. Ms Milligan has enticed the reader with a title that asserts that His Eminence is indeed guilty.
According to the author, history has been analysed, George Pell has been declared guilty, and hence his “fall”.
I slowly read the book to see how the author came to the conclusion of the “fall” of the very highest member of the Australian Catholic clergy, a genuinely nice man, a holy man, and, yes, even an orthodox man. The author starts by admitting she used “anonymous sources” (p2) for her information. A pity these sources don’t have the courage to step forward from behind their assured anonymity.
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