Aussie Pressures Lead Pope to Pull Pell; Who’s Next?

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
February 25, 2014

http://christiancatholicism.com/aussie-pressures-lead-pope-francis-to-pull-pell-who-is-next/

The clergy abuse survivors of Australia and the rule of law have scored a major victory. Cardinal Pell has been induced to take a Vatican desk job apparently to avoid the unrelenting and escalating pressure from the Australian Royal Commission’s investigation into institutional child sexual abuse. The pressure was increased by the testimony of a sacked Aussie bishop who described the Vatican’s interference in local abuse scandals as reported here

[My Daily News]

The Royal Commission can likely still reach Pell in due course, if and when it wants to.

The Vatican’s apologists, of course, have tried to spin this as a “promotion”, but this fantasy fools few. Australia’s top Catholic leader has reluctantly had to flee his beloved homeland to seek Vatican protection, as the USA’s Cardinal Law did a decade before.

Meanwhile, a Polish Archbishop, a protege of Pope John Paul II and former Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is already crowding the Vatican’s refuge for hierarchs seeking to avoid the child abuse scandal fallout.

Who will be next as the Vatican circles its wagons to protect cardinals and bishops ? What ever happened to the Pope’s abuse commission? Can the Pope continue avoiding the abuse scandal as discussed here

[Christian Catholicism]

Pell has been made head of Vatican finances, which led a knowledgeable Jesuit insider, Thomas Reese, to ask ” … why did this job not go to a layperson? Do we really need cardinals to handle finances in the Vatican? The answer is that Rome is still a papal court where princes of the church still matter, despite all Francis’ protestations.” A fuller answer is that it gave Francis a face-saving way to yank Pell from Down Under as the heat from the Royal Commission intensifies.

And that is why this over-hyped purported Vatican financial reform will fail. No independent and informed lay oversight, just more papal appointees like Pell. None of the popes in recent memory appear to have been fully trustworthy on money matters, judging from published reports. Pell’s Australian pastoral career had been virtually ended by the ongoing and disturbing disclosures of the Royal Commission and a regional commission’s recent investigation.

Before the Royal Commission is finished, Pell may well need the Vatican immunity he may be trying to seek in his new position. He can also serve as resident Roman expert on “Bling Bishops” as he rules from the reported lavish multi-million dollar Rome residence facility he recently constructed for Australians, especially himself. Pell’s handling of the Rome residence is hardly a recommendation for being the top person on financial accountability.

Sadly, as has been the case for centuries, the promised Vatican financial reforms remain just that, promises. Unless really independent lay oversight is installed, and there is little evidence it has or will be, this is just the latest appointment of another amateur and conflicted cleric installed to oversee the other financial amateurs with their centuries’ old patterns of corruption. It may delay the numerous government investigators a bit, but it is woefully inadequate based on my long experience with financial oversight of multinational organizations.

Given Pell’s unseemly reputation in Australia and his reported ties to billionaire backers like Rupert Murdoch, a papal knight, there is little positive that may be inferred by either this appointment or the latest promised financial reorganization. Pell, like Cardinal Bergoglio, looked the other way for years on the publicly reported Vatican financial scandals and apparent bribery reports, e.g., Fr. Maciel to Cardinal Sodano, John Paul II, et. al. It appears to be more business as usual, with Francis’ usual unique public relations spin. Nice try, but not enough, especially with Pell in charge.