Australia’s Catholic Church held a vigil next to the burning chamber of Cardinal George Pell, accused of pedophilia, in Sydney this Wednesday, despite protests from victims of sexual abuse.
Outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, where the vigil is taking place, protesters tied hundreds of ribbons to railings in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse, ribbons that were repeatedly removed by cathedral staff.
Australian police have filed a lawsuit to try to ban a protest by a gay rights group planned outside the cathedral on Thursday, the day of the funeral.
Deputy Commissioner David Hudson stressed that the police are “not against” the protest and “respect people’s right to protest and express their views”, but that “a number of aspects” of the protest “pose a risk to the public safety”.
Pell, who died in Rome on Jan. 10 at age 81, was serving as economy minister, the third most important figure in Vatican City, when he was formally charged in 2017 with five sexual assaults on two minors in the 1990s. .
Found guilty in December 2018, Pell, who admitted he had not done enough to protect victims of sexual abuse by Australian clergy, was sentenced to six years in prison. for the acts committed at St Patrick’s Church when he was Archbishop of Melbourne, the sentence was upheld in August 2019.
After serving 400 days in prison, Pell was released in April 2020, when Australia’s Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, reversed the sentence.
Lawyers representing the prosecutor in the Australian case against Pell, for psychological damage and alleged sexual abuse, of which he was acquitted, said they would take the cases against the Catholic Church.
In August 2022, the Supreme Court for the Australian Region of Victoria rejected a request by the Catholic Church to “stop the proceedings”.
Source: DN
