Admire this work of art.
That’s beautiful.
As you’ve probably heard, Cardinal Pell is dead and will be buried in the Vatican tomorrow. The news has been strange — I’m not seeing much talk about his child sex abuse history, since he was acquitted, after all. All was forgiven, the Catholic church was relieved to be let off the hook.
On the day of Pell’s acquittal in 2020, Francis offered his morning Mass for all those who suffer from unjust sentences, which he compared to the persecution of Jesus.
Ironic, then, that the latest scandal is the discovery of a memo written by Pell.
Australian Cardinal George Pell was lying in state on Friday, with funeral preparations overshadowed by revelations that he was the author of an anonymous memo that branded Pope Francis’ pontificate a catastrophe.
You don’t expect loyalty from a junkyard dog, do you? He was just a mean-spirited, nasty little man. He was the kind of rabid conservative who hated science and did immense harm to society.
The late Cardinal George Pell left a legacy of climate science denial which – in his later years – became ever more distanced from reality and the position of the Catholic church.
For decades in newspaper columns and speeches, Pell popularised climate denial talking points to dismiss the science of global heating and to brand environmentalists as hysterical and in the grip of a pseudo-religion.
What’s impressive is that Pell was one of the few people who could make a positive contribution to humanity by simply dropping dead.
How fitting that Big Oil could buy hell for Pell.
Pity he couldn’t instead live his final moments on a world that most resembles his visions of future Earth – Venus.
Few? The number of people who could make a positive contribution to humanity by dropping dead is quite large, actually. I have a list, and it’s long.
You mean George “plain vanilla penetration” Pell? THAT George Pell?
May him rest on peas.
Some day they will probably declare him to be a saint, and distribute portions of his skeleton worldwide as holy relics.
@5
They should have done that decades ago.
Pell was convicted beyond reasonable doubt by a jury who heard all the evidence including the victim live. The “Justices” who then overturned that – totally wrongly in my view – included ones appointed by Pell’s puppet former PM mad Monk /Captain Catholic Abbbott and Catholic religious ones who should have recused themselevs for obvious bais in my non-legally expert opinion.
This Tim Minchin – “Come Home Cardinal Pell” song once more
Pell didn’t come home. Didn’t sue Tim MInchin. Didn’t tell the truth. Never faced the victims. Died a coward and hypocrite and scum. Sheltered by his enablers and fellow child abuse, child rape coverer-uppers – the Vatican. World’s most disgraced religion / Overgrown cult arguably? The world’s most notorius and yet to be taken down child sex trafficking gang. Time they were raided and arrested. All of them that committed and covered up and were accomplices and enablers and, oh yeah, child rapists. Pell is dead now. To much to hope for justice for those who enabled his child rapes?
Tragedy is Pell never told the truth, never revealed what he knew and never really faced what he did. Raid the Catholi Church I say. If only they would.
“As you’ve probably heard, Cardinal Pell is dead and will be buried in the Vatican tomorrow.”
I read somewhere he was being buried in Australia? And Premier Andrews of Victoria said “no state funeral for this scumbag”. Has this changed?
Oh and Aussie ABC’s 4 Corners episode on bringing pellto justice here – just under 45 minutes long. WARNING : Child sexual abuse references & disturbing and distressing content of course. I think there was an earlier episode of 4 Corners too but I cannot seem to find it now sadly. Thing is, the case he was convicted of certainly wasn’t the only or first one he committed. Our legal system stinks and badly needs reforming.
Sadly they are not burying his corpse in the Vatican. They are bringing it back to Sydney to shove it in the crypt under ST. Mary’s Cathedral, the very church he was accused of molesting choirboys in.
Sadly they are not burying his corpse in the Vatican. They are bringing it back to Sydney to shove it in the crypt under ST. Mary’s Cathedral, the very church he was accused of molesting choirboys in.
@ rorschach : Not as far as I’ve heard. See :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-12/nsw-and-victoria-reject-hosting-george-pell-state-funeral/101849032
Plus :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-13/cardinal-george-pell-funeral-vatican-saturday/101851566
In addition to :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-12/george-pell-to-be-buried-at-st-mary-s-cathedral-in-sydney/101844166
I think we can expect that final resting place to become an improvised urinal despite whatever precautions they will no doubt take.
Not the earlier 4 Corners epsidoe but 60 minutes on more pell atrocities – 20 mins long WARNING : Child sexual abuse refs & suicide references too. Must admit I haven’t seen it myself just the start & found in searching. Opening says enough really.
Then there’s well, wikipedia esp this section of course :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pell#Allegations_of_child_sexual_abuse
Oh and another song also by Tim Minchin – pretty sure yáll guess which one seems apt for the Popes -plural who sheltered, paid major $$$ for, enabled and defended this child rapist and child rape enabler and coverer upper.
From StevoR’s link:
“NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet also confirmed there would be no state funeral service in the state. ”
When you’re too dirty even for the religious dominionist right to touch you.
There’s someone where the only sad thing about his death is that it hasn’t happened many years earlier.
George Pell dies a free man and his moldering carcass gets put in a place of honor…
Just another friendly reminder that there is NO justice in the universe, kids.
I wonder if Pell believed in hell, as per his religion. If he did believe in hell, did he think he was going there, or did he somehow excuse, in his mind, what he did and was thereby assured that he was not going there?
From an fb meme – original author unknown to me. Caps chaged because better all in lower case, initial letter aside. Typos no doubt mine – typing off screen.
NB. For those who aren’t aware already : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ridsdale
Oh and another meme seen on fb – a photo which obvs cannot share here & again dunno the orignal source but the text says enough :
Not sure who CSA are, sorry. But ..yeah. No words. Somany live slost and harmed becaue of this evil scumbag ofa regressive child abusing pile of worse than excrement.
@15. mordred : Also that he didn’t die in jail and never revealed all he knew.
Last I heard, what the Catholic church thinks is the really bad part of child sexual abuse is the scandal (translation, damage to the reputations of the perpetrators and enablers). IIRC, Ratzinger implied exactly that in a letter to Irish bishops that he wrote back when he was still the chief inquisitor (but I can’t find it and so can’t provide a link to back up my memory).
IMO, the Roman Catholic Church has no moral authority and so has no reason to exist.
ahcuah@17 That’s a question I ask myself about most of the religious leaders, past and present. Do they really believe in the stuff they preach and view their own evil deeds as something good in their twisted little minds? Or don’t the believe and just enjoy the power other’s faith gives them?
He ran out the clock. The whole catholic church seems to be about running out the clock, now.
What’s impressive is that Pell was one of the few people who could make a positive contribution to humanity by simply dropping dead.
Is Thomas Midgley still near (or at ?) the top of that list now that there is no more leaded gas and the ozone layer seems to have recover ?
mordred@#21:
Do they really believe in the stuff they preach and view their own evil deeds as something good in their twisted little minds?
One data point: I know a defrocked bishop, who told me that divinity school beats the faith out of you. Once you study the bible closely, it’s impossible not to see it as a document originating from political humans – no divine inspiration – generations of edits and additions. Apparently the fights for power in the system are serious and vicious.
He said that a big piece of his job was visiting “dying rich old people” and trying to get them to remember the church in their will. He quit after one day when he spent a few hours trying to talk an old lady – clearly in dementia – into donating $250,000 “for a new roof” According to him “a new roof” is the standard story.
Bart Ehrman is a good example of how the mystery gets burned out of you, and replaced with cynicism.
You all are looking at this the wrong way.
Pell is gone and the world is now a better place.
It is a good reason to celebrate. Have a party, go out for dinner, open a bottle of wine.
Whatever you do for fun, it’s all good.
PS When someone like Pell dies, I always hear the Wizard of Oz song in my mind.
“Ding-dong, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch
Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead
Wake up, you sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up, the wicked witch is dead!”
Also: Mother Teresa wrote about her constant crises of faith. Not surprising since she was grifting pretty hard, and was a nobody opportunist. There are probably a few who still believe but they’re surrounded by child rapers, heirarchy climbers, grifters, and sociopathic manipulators.
Before that he was lying in Australia.
If memory serves, Midgley didn’t so much drop dead as get jerked up in the air and strangled by a rope-and-pulley device of his own design.
Of course I would never wish such a horrible death on anyone. Never. Not even someone as reprehensible as Cardinal Pell. Well, probably not. Usually not. Rarely, maybe. Depending on my mood.
A thoroughly nasty man with political views that would have ben thought extreme by the Spanish Inquisition and Genghis Khan. A text book case of fundamentalist religion leading to fascist politics.
raven: I’m thinking of the song Ebenezer Scrooge dreamed would be sung at his funeral: “Thank you very much, that’s the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me…”
Originally, Sheol of the jews was just a bleak place like the Greek Hades or the norse Hel, not the hell of the Christians. Posthumous punishment only entered the memeverse a bit into the iron age, when the ruling classes had enough leisure to ponder things like ethics.
Of course, once Christianity got going, it really liked the idea of eternal torture for the outsiders.
And Muhammed took the idea to its ludicrious extreme.
As for cardinal Pell, he has gone the same way as Agent Smith.
When Thatcher died, BBC had to order the radio not to play the song about the wicked witch , even though it was # 1 on the charts.
Marcus Ranum @ 24
Do you recall the episode of Black Adder where the crown and the church were rivals for bequests?
A lot of bishops died in odd ways.
StevoR @ 7
Sadly, there is another religion that is even worse. Whose founder banged a nine-year old “wife” and traded with slaves.
NB I make a clear distinction between the religion and the current practicers of that religion. The mayor of London would be disgusted if he could be convinced the accusation was true.
According to family lore, when my husband’s uncle was selected to be an altar boy (probably late 1940’s or early 1950’s) my grandmother-in-law said ‘no priest is fiddling with my son’ and they left the catholic church. There have been pedophile priests in the Ballarat region for longer than the current claims and at least some of the locals knew or guessed.
I am not surprised that Pell got acquitted. The catholic church still has a ridiculous amount of power and money, and a lot of practice covering up, justifying, and lying about the actions of its clergy. Their moral standpoint is that protecting the power of the church is God’s will and any means justifies the end.
Not “acquitted” found guilty – his trial and conviction then overturned on a legal tecnicality.
I found something from Australia that is far more wholesome. (Pell would have been one of the baddies consumed by fireballs)
from Mad Max 2 Roadblox https://wDEDXH9Y3SM
https://youtu.be/wDEDXH9Y3SM
@ahcuah #17:
Whatever his personal belief, as far as the RCC is concerned Pell would have met his maker with a clean conscience. Only his confessor (who was probably someone high up in the Vatican) will actually know to what sins Pell confessed, and he’ll never tell anyone. If Pell did believe he’d done something wrong in order to protect the Church, he’d have confessed it, done penance and had no fear of hell. If there were things we would consider wrong but he didn’t, he’d not consider himself at risk of hell. So if he was in any fear while on his deathbed, it would be a normal mortal terror and not a spiritual terror.
It all just goes to show how irretrievably fucked up religion is.
@39 I doubt he confessed to any such crime as he wouldn’t have thought he had done anything wrong.
Another example of the harm this man did in the name of religion – https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/15/a-school-principal-gave-up-everything-to-blow-the-whistle-on-a-paedophile-priest-george-pell-hung-up-on-him
Protecting the hierarchy of the Catholic church was all that mattered, and to hell with the ordinary people.