MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The New Daily
February 27, 2019
Cardinal George Pell has lodged an appeal after being found guilty on five charges of sexually abusing two boys in the 1990s.
But there are many defending him. Some question the verdict, others say it is inconsistent with his character.
Many of his defenders didn’t attend the trial, and weren’t exposed to the days’ worth of evidence presented to the court.
News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt believes Pell is innocent: “He is a scapegoat, not a child abuser.”
In his column for the Herald Sun, Bolt went on to say he’d met Pell about five times and liked him.
“The man I know seems not just incapable of such abuse, but so intelligent and cautious that he would never risk his brilliant career and good name on such a mad assault in such a public place.”
Bolt’s News Corp colleague Miranda Devine made a similar claim, that Pell was the victim of a “lynch mob” and “sacrificial lamb” for the Church’s abuses.
“They hate him because he is a conservative Catholic, the implacable enemy who stood in the way of ‘progress’ in the Church. While fellow Catholics crumbled and appeased, he unequivocally defended Church teachings and refused to compromise over gay marriage, euthanasia, abortion, or wedge issues such as communion for divorcees. And now they think they’ve won,” she wrote.
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