Scapegoat, Vendetta, ‘Unsafe Verdict’: the Travesty of Justice in the Cardinal Pell Case

First Things, George Weigel: Has it occurred to anyone else debating the perverse verdict rendered against Cardinal George Pell, which convicted him of “historic sexual abuse,” that the cardinal did not have to return to his native Australia to face trial? As a member of the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and a Vatican official, Pell holds a Vatican diplomatic passport and citizenship of Vatican City State. Were he guilty, he could have stayed put in the extraterritorial safety of the Vatican enclave, untouchable by the Australian authorities. But because Cardinal Pell knows he is innocent, he was determined to go home to defend his honor—and, in a broader sense, to defend his decades of work rebuilding the Catholic Church in Australia, the living parts of which owe a great deal to his leadership and courage. Full article is here.

And here is News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt vindicating Pell. Bolt is not Catholic; in fact he is an atheist.