![Morbid Left ‘re-litigates’ deceased Pell](https://politicom.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/George-Pell-funderal-300x500-1.png)
by PAUL COLLITS – THE war on Cardinal George Pell continues beyond the grave. How could it not? The stakes for the Mean Girls and their allies are simply too great.
The battle lines have clearly emerged. On one side, we have author Tess Livingstone, writing about the scandal that resulted in the unjust imprisonment of Australia’s most senior clergyman.
- This new finding was made on the lowest possible standard of proof.
- Yet, the Left parades this in public as some sort of subsequent finding against Cardinal Pell.
- It proves nothing.
On the other, we have a cluster of endlessly committed, seedy accusers aided by alleged journalists, priest chasing lawyers, spivs from VicPol and bitter, mean girls.
On the case for the defence is Tess Livingstone, an experienced and excellent journalist at The Australian newspaper, who penned a biography of the Cardinal in the early 2000s and has now updated it after his passing.
COLOURFUL
The case for a brand new version covering the colourful events in Pell’s life since the publication of the first biography is relatively straightforward.
The book, George Cardinal Pell Pax Invictis: A Biography, will be launched by John Howard next month at my old stamping ground, Campion College.
“Pax invictis” translates as “peace to the unconquered”. Whoever thought up that title got it just about right.
Pell is certainly at peace.
Unconquered, by definition. Satan’s earthly principalities cannot touch him now, despite the ongoing efforts of Pell’s endless detractors.
Satan’s earthly domain has been going pretty much to his plan, right now. He has many little helpers. Those battles continue.
And I remain quietly convinced that St George had a hand in the first few miracles that have somehow kept my daughter alive. (A few more are needed, George, as we speak.)
Tess has done a few interviews about her newly updated book.
Ignatius Press and the legendary Joe Fessio have pulled it off: “Livingstone writes in detail about the well-known and pivotal role the cardinal played in reforming Vatican finances, including the many challenges he faced in the process, and the suffering he endured on account of a much-publicised miscarriage of justice in Australia that saw him spend 404 days in jail in 2019 and 2020 on false accusations of child sex abuse.”
“Looking back, it was so illogical,” Livingstone told the National Catholic Register. “It was so ludicrous.”
Livingstone emphasises in her book Cardinal Pell’s resilience in the face of adversity and how his unwavering faith served as a source of strength throughout his trials.
When he arrived at the Vatican to lead financial reform in 2014, Livingstone says, he fully subscribed to Francis’ goal of a Church to help the poor — but not Francis’ wish for a poor Church.
What he wanted was “a better-managed Church,” she says, and his priority was for the Church’s finances to be used primarily for charity and for the poor rather than wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy.
But as has been widely reported, Cardinal Pell’s successes in reforming Vatican finances provoked fierce resistance from old-guard Vatican officials who had Francis’ ear.
That internal opposition led to suspicions of collusion between anonymous figures in the Vatican and Australia to get him out of the way.
UNCOMFORTABLE
“Certainly, they were very pleased to see the back of him,” Livingstone said. “He really did a sterling job and it made the old guard very uncomfortable.”
Livingstone documents that, already in 2013, more than a year before Cardinal Pell arrived in Rome, the cardinal was the target of “Operation Tethering”, an investigation Victoria Police had launched into him without any specific allegations at the time.
In 2017, the year of Pell’s arraignment to Australia, mysterious and unaccounted for fund transfers from the Vatican to Australia were made.
So, did certain figures in the Vatican perhaps learn about “Operation Tethering” and then use it for their own purposes to remove Cardinal Pell from the scene?
“That’s the theory,” Livingstone said.
But she stresses that precise details are “yet to be uncovered definitively”.
Cardinal Pell himself suspected dark forces were at work.
“He would have loved to see all that properly investigated,” Livingstone said.
“He would also have liked a proper Royal Commission into what happened to the justice system in Victoria. It went wrong.”
THEORY
That’s the theory. Indeed.
Did Pell’s enemies in the Vatican do a deal with Daniel Andrews and the other Victorian grubs? What was VicPol’s Commissioner, Shane Patton, doing in Rome?
Was there Vatican money transferred to Victoria? Was the Mafia involved? Pell himself believed that the corruption in VicPol went to the top. He would know. And he also knew all about Vatican corruption.
Sadly, the new book seems not to have resolved these questions. Who can?
It must be nearing the time for the outing of Pell’s accuser, Witness JJ.
It is tempting. He is now a Leftie podcaster who still has the right to maintain anonymity. Yet everyone in Melbourne knows his name.
He was the man who was deliberately and carefully conscripted to destroy George Pell. He was tutored over several years and scripted to within an inch of his life.
But new developments have emerged.
As reported by Sky News anchor, Andrew Bolt, the Pell haters have not given up.
Bolt has slammed the process which led to two men receiving thousands of dollars in compensation after claiming to the National Redress Scheme that they were abused by George Pell.
Legal expert Chris Merritt has described the claims as “ludicrous” and has questioned the process surrounding the awarding of compensation.
The decision to award each individual compensation was made by an independent “decision maker” who, under the scheme, is brought in to assess an application for redress.
LUDICROUS
“To have this independent decision maker, an anonymous person, not necessarily legally qualified, make a finding on the lowest possible standard of proof, well below the criminal standard, but even below the civil standard is ludicrous,” Mr Merritt told Sky News Australia host Tom Connell last week.
“To then have that paraded in public as some sort of subsequent finding about the character of Cardinal Pell proves nothing. It proves the lunacy of the Diocese of Ballarat or the Catholic Church in actually signing up to this scheme.
“This is a creature of the Turnbull Government and the only good thing I can say about it is that it expires in 2028.
“If you’re going to award redress for criminal harm, it should be determined on the criminal standard of proof, beyond reasonable doubt.”
One of the men, named as James, claimed Cardinal Pell anally raped him after chasing him into a gymnasium at his Catholic school.
James claimed he was chased after stealing Cardinal Pell’s cardigan. He was awarded $95,000 in compensation after approaching the scheme in 2024.
In the other alleged incident, a man named as David claimed that when Cardinal Pell went to throw him in the air during a swimming pool game, he grabbed his genitals.
David was awarded $45,000 in compensation five weeks before Cardinal Pell’s death.
The Diocese of Ballarat disputes the men’s claims.
Good work if you can get it – 45k easy dollars. Who is running this scam?
The ABC is the chief “Get Pell” institution and has never lost its desire to keep this going.
Sarah Ferguson, aka Mrs Tony Jones, aired a fresh attack on Pell just days after the Cardinal’s exoneration by the High Court. Digging up “evidence” from Ballarat.
The lines of debate have clearly emerged. Pick a side.PC