UNITED STATES
Sydney Morning Herald
By Rachel Olding
12 May 2018
New York: Cardinal George Pell has emerged as a mystery guest who dined at a lavish Rome restaurant with embattled US environmental chief Scott Pruitt to secretly plan a public debate challenging climate change.
The five-star rooftop dinner, which came three weeks before Pell was charged with historic child sexual abuse, was deliberately removed from four different public schedules released by Pruitt’s offices due to the allegations hanging over the Vatican financial chief, it has emerged.
The extraordinary revelations not only add another twist in the tale of the American environmental administrator under fire for excessive spending and dubious ethics, but also pit Pell squarely against the Pope, who has declared that climate change is real.
Pruitt, the administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, is the subject of 11 separate investigations into his lavish travel habits, conflicts of interests and management practices.
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