Acquitted: "We Don't Have To Agree With Everything Francis Does" - Cardinal Pell
Pell was convicted in February 2019 by a Melbourne kangaroo court although his accuser had changed his bogus story 24 (!) times. The cardinal was convicted of having "raping" a minor in a [crowed!] sacristy after Mass. The Australian High Court finally acquitted Pell in April 2020.
In prison, Pell received messages from Francis, “Our relationship is very cordial.” However, when pressed about the fact that his beliefs and those of Francis diverge, Pell only replied “hmhm” while nodding slightly and adding that "the Pope is the head of the Church and deserves our respect, but we don't always have to agree with everything he does."
For Pell, Francis’ Amoris Laetitia on adulterer Communion is “unclear” and “ambiguous” although Francis has made its meaning very clear. He thinks that Francis would [falsely] claim that he hasn’t changed anything.
Pell recalls that the Secretariat of State, then run by Parolin and Becciu, was “particularly unhappy” when he was commissioned to reform the Vatican finances in 2014, because they didn't want corruption, incompetence and waste to be exposed.
He reveals that there are other cases besides the London property that will maybe never come to light, and that the Secretariat of State had only a “limited amount of money” but lost most of it. Pell calls it “very strange” that [his enemy] Becciu was punished by being stripped of his rights as a Cardinal but never had a fair trial.
Referring to the mantras of "clericalism" and "arrogance," Pell said that in most places “the Church hierarchy is not arrogant, but timid and cowardly.”
“Clergy are much less arrogant than some politicians or businessmen [and lay people in the Church],” he added.
Picture: George Pell, © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsQsrhaviktu
