What happened?
cardinal George Pell’s conviction for child sexual abuse has sparked a national debate in Australia, with speculation mounting over his forthcoming appeal.
His legal team has appealed on three grounds. The most likely to succeed, according to legal commentators, is that Cardinal Pell was convicted on the testimony of a single witness, despite what his lawyer calls “unchallenged exculpatory evidence from more than 20 crown witnesses”.
What the media are saying
David Marr of the Guardian expressed a widespread view: that Cardinal Pell’s moral views had been shown up as hypocrisy. “As an archbishop in Melbourne and a cardinal in Sydney, Pell poured his energies into combating contraception, homosexuality, genetic engineering, divorce, equal marriage and abortion.”
