Australian Cardinal gets 50 Years for Child Molestation. What does Jesus say?

Being a strident anti-religeonist, this kind of scurrilous crapola doesn't surprise me. But will someone please advise me, does this indicate that bigshot priests like Cardinal Pell really don't believe? If they Did "believe" as they profess, why would they choose to molest children? Or, do they really think Jesus would approve of such activity? Someone? Anyone?

Once again, the daily news confirms my fervent belief that all religion is evil!



WORLD NEWS 02/25/2019 07:45 pm ET
Cardinal George Pell, Vatican Treasurer, Convicted Of Child Sexual Assault
Pell is the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church to be convicted of such crimes.
headshot
By Nick Visser
Cardinal George Pell of Australia was found guilty in December of five counts of historical sexual offenses.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cardinal George Pell of Australia was found guilty in December of five counts of historical sexual offenses.

Cardinal George Pell, once one of the highest-ranking members of the Vatican, was convicted of multiple counts of child sexual abuse during a trial in Australia in December, becoming the most senior figure in the Catholic Church to be found guilty of such crimes.

Pell, 77, was found guilty of five counts of historical sexual offenses related to the sexual abuse of two choirboys in 1996 and 1997, shortly after he was made the archbishop of Melbourne. A jury reached the verdict in December, but the media was barred from reporting on the news because of a court-imposed gag order.

He will be sentenced on Wednesday and is expected to serve prison time. He faces a maximum sentence of 50 years, according to The Associated Press.

The cardinal was once the third-most-powerful figure in the Catholic Church, serving as the de facto finance chief, and was close with Pope Francis. Pell was removed from his role as one of the pope’s advisers in December after the verdict was reached.

The media has been prohibited from covering the trial because of a sweeping suppression order meant to maintain the integrity of criminal trials in Australia. The orders are relatively common in the country, and news organizations that break them can be subject to heavy fines and jail time.

The Washington Post was among the first to report the conviction in December but other American outlets, including HuffPost, could not do the same because they have staff in Australia. A similar story was first published by The Daily Beast, but the outlet geo-blocked the report in Australia in an attempt to comply with the gag order.

“We understood there could be legal, and even criminal, consequences if we ran this story,” Noah Shachtman, the editor of The Daily Beast, said at the time. “But ultimately, this was an easy call. You’ve got a top Vatican official convicted of a horrific crime. That’s major, major news. The public deserves to know about it.”

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

A (formerly)Catholic friend of mine was happy (well, not exactly happy, since she's not a monster and wants such things happening) that Southern Baptists finally got nabbed for the same stuff a couple weeks ago. She knew that Catholics weren't only only ones doing that shit.

Really, the priesthood is made for abusers, con artists, and any other would-be predator. You're granted instant trust, for no reason at all, you're allowed to be the "voice of God," and the gullible throngs come to you and make themselves available... and people will protect you because they don't want their organization to look bad and spook the herd and shut off all that revenue. Like Andrew Vachss said, "If you want to make obscene phone calls, you go where the phone book's the thickest."

zsomething wrote: Like Andrew Vachss said, "If you want to make obscene phone calls, you go where the phone book's the thickest."

In the unlikely event that there are people who consider themselves well-read but are unfamiliar with Andrew Vachss, I'll just put these here:


Walter Mosley compares the one-eyed author to Charles Dickens. Carl Hiaasen says the author's books are "a fierce crusade for all victims who can't fight back . . . especially imperiled children."

https://www.borgantiquarian.com/pages/books/1283/andrew-vachss/dead-and-gone-a-burke-novel



Andrew Vachss has been a federal investigator in sexually transmitted diseases, a social-services caseworker, a labor organizer, and has directed a maximum-security prison for "aggressive-violent" youth. Now a lawyer in private practice, he represents children and youth exclusively. He is the author of numerous novels, including the Burke series, two collections of short stories, and a wide variety of other material including song lyrics, graphic novels, essays, and a "children's book for adults." His books have been translated into twenty languages, and his work has appeared in Parade, Antaeus, Esquire, Playboy, The New York Times, and many other forums. His books have been awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, the Falcon Award, Deutschen Krimi Preis, Die Jury des Bochumer Krimi Archivs and the Raymond Chandler Award (per Giurìa a Noir in Festival, Courmayeur, Italy).

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/andrew-h-vachss/

Are the Burke series novels really good?  I'm looking for a new (to him) author for my husband to read.  I see the series goes back to about 1985 - should hubby really start that far back? And are they ALL about child molesters, or are there different themes?

Loved the telephone book quote, btw.