İçeriğe geçmek için "Enter"a basın

Pope Francis decries ‘unjust sentences’ after cardinal George Pell acquitted

Francis does not mention Pell by name during morning mass

Pope Francis has recalled the “persecution that Jesus suffered” and has prayed for those who suffer “unjust sentences” hours after Australia’s highest court acquitted cardinal George Pell of child sexual abuse.

The court in Melbourne quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choirboys in the 1990s, allowing the 78-year-old former Vatican economy minister to walk free from jail, ending the most high-profile case of alleged historical sex abuse to rock the Roman Catholic church.

There was no immediate comment from the Vatican, but at the start of mass, celebrated at his lodgings at Santa Marta on Tuesday morning and livestreamed, Pope Francis said: “I would like to pray today for all those people who suffer unjust sentences resulting from intransigence [against them].”

Francis did not mention Pell by name, but compared the suffering of those inflicted with “unjust sentences” to the way Jewish community elders persecuted Jesus with “obstinacy and rage even though he was innocent”.

Each morning at the mass, Francis chooses an intention for the service, such as remembering the poor, the homeless or the sick. In recent weeks, the pope’s intentions for nearly all of his daily masses have been related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pell was number three in the Vatican hierarchy, in charge of the Holy See’s finances and of rooting out corruption.

His five-year term as Vatican treasurer expired just days before he was sentenced in February last year. Pope Francis had removed him from his inner council of advisers two months earlier.

The Vatican said last year that it would wait for the judicial process to be exhausted before taking any further action.

Pell is three years past the age at which bishops and Vatican officials normally hand in their resignation, is not expected to return to a Holy See job.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the Vatican’s disciplinary department – is expected now to consider the accusations against Pell and could order a canonical trial. But it would be an extraordinary turn of events if the outcome was different to the ruling of the appeal court in Melbourne.

An official Vatican comment was expected later on Tuesday, according to Reuters, which said it was not clear if the pope would make a personal statement.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/07/pope-francis-decries-unjust-sentences-after-cardinal-george-pell-acquitted

İlk yorum yapan siz olun

Bir Cevap Yazın