Day to Day Politics: The Evil Priest
Wednesday 2 March 2016
1 Cardinal Pell in giving evidence to the Royal Commission into the abuse of children uttered two of the most debauched sentences ever spoken by an Australian cleric.
“I didn’t know whether it was common knowledge or whether it wasn’t,” he said. “It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.” “The suffering, of course, was real and I very much regret that but I had no reason to turn my mind to the extent of the evil that Ridsdale had perpetrated.”
The audible grasp from those listening summed up the pent-up vacuum of abhorrence the victims feel for this man.
He evoked the ‘I didn’t know, I wasn’t told’ defence that sounded as hollow as a burnt out log in hell. It beggars belief that he didn’t know what was going on.
The good and faithful of the church must be greatly offended by the leadership that represents them.
It seems the words compassion, contrition and empathy have been lost on this priest who purports to represent the word of God.
An observation on the lost lives.
‘In the cycle of life people we care most about are taken from us too soon. We struggle to come to terms with the why of it and there is no answer. It is only by the way we conduct our living that we salute the legacy they leave behind‘.
2 Is John Howard seriously suggesting that people such as these don’t speak out because of some sort of fear of political correctness? That’s the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.
Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Piers Akerman, Janet Albrechtson, Miranda Devine, Dennis Shanahan, Paul Kelly, Chris Kenny and Tom Switzer. Gerard Henderson Paul Sheehan, Miranda Divine. Ray Hadley, Michael Smith, Judith Sloane, Terry McCrann, Chris Berg, Miranda Divine and Rupert Murdoch.
I think they would feel highly insulted by his words.
3 The Safe Schools programme has the blessing of high school principals and parents. It is objected to by the Australian Christian Lobby and Tony Abbott and his loyal gang of Christian acolytes.
The same people are gradually merging this argument with marriage equality. Pamphlets of misinformation are beginning to appear. It’s becoming like the Republican Referendum where Tony Abbott and Nick Minchin told the most outrageous lies.
Abbott has already called the Safe Schools programme “social engineering”. That’s a subject he would know a lot about. And bullying I venture to suggest.
The pamphlet in question says, among other things, that children of gay and lesbian parents are more prone to “abuse and neglect” and more likely to be unemployed, abuse drugs and suffer depression.
It is authorised by a former John Howard parliamentary secretary. So you can see the ‘NO’ campaign is drawing up its lines of engagement.
Tony looks set to head the ‘NO’ case and it will divide the community. Why are we spending $160M on a plebiscite to find an answer already known? It’s to raise the voice of a Christian minority. A voice that is doomed to oblivion in the next decade or so.
4 During John Howard’s tenure the LNP had 13 tries to get their Broadband policy right. They never did, mainly because they didn’t understand its purpose. Luddites of the calibre of Howard, who didn’t know how to send an email, George Brandis who can’t use a computer and Tony Abbott who thought it was only used to access porn, or entertainment as he described it, thought it was a load of nonsense.
Abbott, when he became Prime Minister commissioned Turnbull to destroy it. Turnbull to his credit saw its true value. He did say he could do it at half Labor’s cost and in half the time. The opposite is the truth. It’s taking twice as long and costing twice as much.
Worse still is that the majority of us will get old technology. A technology that within ten years will have to be replaced. At the end of it our internet speeds will be ranked 46th in the world.
We’ve moved from Labor’s state-of-the-art fibre to the premises (FttP) strategy to the so-called Multi-Technology Mix (MTM), which heavily relies on using the ageing Telstra copper network and the not so old, but not very modern, Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC) networks originally built for pay television. Both will require considerable remediation work before they are fit for purpose and there is a solid argument to be put that in the end we’ll have to replace much of them at some point anyway.
Tony Abbott originally said:
“The Government is going to invest $43 billion worth of hard-earned money in what I believe is going to turn out to be a white elephant on a massive scale”.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull tells us that our future rests on innovation.
5 The Essential Poll yesterday has Labor and the LNP on 50% and Labor on 50%. A trend has begun. Do the odds shorten for a July election?
6 Who is leading the Liberal Party? It looks like Tony Abbott is doing all the leading at the moment shirtfronting, the PM telling the party room what the Government should be doing.
Everyone seems to be telling the leader how to lead. Might I remind everyone that the Abbott/ Turnbull Government, by the time of the election will have been in power for a full term and they are now getting around to formulating an economic plan? Still a lot of talking going under the bridge.
My thought for the day.
‘Truth is pure yet fragile and requires delicacy in delivery. There are however times when it needs some diplomatic force to make it register’.
24 comments
Login here Register here-
Mercurial -
DisablednDesperate -
John Lord -
Matthew Oborne -
Peter F -
-
Mercurial -
kerri -
Wally -
Kaye Lee -
king1394 -
jim -
Bronte ALLAN -
Salstarat -
Florence nee Fedup -
Florence nee Fedup -
kerri -
Geoff Andrews -
RosemaryJ36 -
kerri -
Sadenile -
margcal -
Geoff Andrews -
Salstarat
Return to home page2. Did you mention Miranda Devine?
I don’t often comment on public posts due to fear but on Safe Schools I felt compelled. The fundys are out in force on the QandA page carping on about the perils to kids from the program and SSM. It is just the beginning sadly.
Mercurial. Miranda is there. How could I miss her.
Pell’s testimony has made made many people take notice of just how bad religeon can be. It is time to have an intervention on religeons to stop all abusive practices. Religeons not heavily caught up in this inquiry dont let members watch TV read the news, vote, impose fines and punishments, practice shunning and many other sick forms of abuse.
In some religeons a childs friends are told not to talk to that child and that child is not expected to have friends outside of the church, that is an extraordinary abuse. Children in some religeons are many times more likely to have mental health problems than the general population yet this abuse isnt being tackled. We have two examples of religeon in public life getting media attention, Many churches think Gay people go to hell, churches that consider themselves more moderate accept LGBT members but wouldnt marry them.
Religeous institutions need more than just this inquiry when this inquiry is finished many churches still have practices other than sexual abuse that is abusive towards children and their parents.
This might seem minor compared to what we have heard recently but at my Daughters school a young girl and her mother have to hide the fact they have christmas and birthdays, they would be punished if the elders of their church found out.
I grew up with someone who at a certain point of his life was no longer allowed to be friends with people outside his church.
The Catholic church is a particularly nasty organisation whose human rights abuses continued into recent times yet we turn a blind eye because it is religeon. Freedom to believe the unbelieveable is one thing Freedom to abuse in any form now has to be cracked down on.
“Tony Abbott who thought it was only used to access porn,” . . . ….. We are all limited by our own experience.
Pingback: What John Lord writes about today in AIM (Australian Independent Media) Network | auntyuta
Yes John. Several times, in fact. Once as Devine, twice as Divine. A, diversity – ain’t it a wonderful thing?
A common analogy used in the various Christian churches for a priest is that of the shepherd and his flock.
If so Ridsdale was surely the wolf, the children the sheep and Pell was either asleep in the hay or too “busy” mending his crook!
Cardinal Pell should be charged with aiding and abetting, his failure to act in a proper manner allowed crimes to be committed against more children. Someone must be held accountable to send a strong message to responsible people in all types of organisations that it is their duty to care and to protect the vulnerable in their care, in particular children.
In 2013, Pope Francis said priests should be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep.” I appreciated the sentiment at the time. It now evokes different connotations.
People forget how heartless Catholic priests have been over the last century. The opposition to birth control in the Catholic Church for example, led to many women, including my mother, having more children than they wanted, and at the same time being riven by guilt for using any other than ‘natural’ techniques. A family connection, a woman who was blind, and unfortunately very religious, had three little children before she asked her priest for advice … which was that she must happily accept all the children that GOD chose to send her. She committed suicide.
These priests had no concern for the ongoing havoc and misery their advice caused. It’s no wonder they saw child sexual abuse as a momentary aberration either in themselves or others, and something that could be confessed and absolved in their own cases. Of course Pell didn’t worry about it; he continues to live in that world.
I often wonder how much longer will people be fooled by religion,the RC church once wanted to ban ice cream FFS, The RC church murdered anyone thought to be a witch they did this for decades,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok89WOdz1PI.If Mr Pell wasn’t interested in children being molested and abused,well then just what are his interests? besides his own fat arse?.Mr pell has attended the IPA meetings,along with abbott, howard, and many other Liberal Party members, Hey and “if” god does finally pop down from”heaven” which god will he be ? who’s side will the said god be on? BTW the Australian constitution prohibits the government from advocating any one religion or imposing any religious observance. Fact just 7% of Australians go to church on a weekly basis.
And I suppose this Pell character does not even know if the Pope is a Catholic, or that the sun rises in the morning & sets at night, & that rain falls from the sky? I wonder just what his “interests” are? Perhaps collecting dead fish or used condoms-as a good Catholic should know about condoms–or belly button lint, whatever, he obviously had NO TIME to remember or have any “interest” in any of these “sexual matters”, yeah, right!
Pell is a MONSTROUS aberration! His cold blooded lack of compassion for the HUNDREDS of defenceless, vulnerable victims (many of them little orphans as young as 2) by the despicable, demonic predator, Gerald Ridsdale (whom, if there is any justice, is burning to a cinder in hell right NOW) is absolutely chilling! Pell is a vain, arrogant, condescending, narcissistic sociopath who has not ONE IOTA of insight into the devastating part he played in the abuse and ongoing torture of these children at the hands of the unspeakable bastard, Ridsdale, and a horrific, sadistic nun at the Sisters of Nazareth Girls Home. Pell LIVED with Ridsdale for more than SIX LONG YEARS whilst Ridsdale was abusing children in the bedroom of the house he shared with Pell – how could Pell not know??
http://myexpress.com.au/top-stories/girls-home-abuse-victims-confront-nuns-caring-for-dying-bishop/
One male victim of Ridsdale remembers clearly that, right in the middle of one episode of abuse, the door was ajar and Ridsdale looked up and casually said “Hello George” … it could only have been Pell which PROVES that he KNEW what was going on. Pell is now, himself, the subject of a sexual abuse accusation! Pell is a pathological LIAR, a colossal malignant hypocrite who is only motivated by pure ambition and pride. Pell should be excommunicated, charged and JAILED – instead he lives in the lap of luxury in a $30 Million villa outside of Rome paid for by the donations of poor working class Catholics! He and the whole system of paedophile protection in the Catholic Church STINKS from the Pope down!
Pell triviliases, minimalises the CRIME by calling it a “tragic mistake” – MISTAKE! It is the MOST HEINOUS CRIME – a crime that MURDERED the childhood of countless vulnerable children (many of them orphans or foster children), destroyed their lives and, as a result, caused many to become drug/alcohol addicts (trying to escape the horrific reality of their abused childhood) and so many more ended up suiciding. This is all down to PELL and his paedophile cronies: Ridsdale, Father Peter Searson, the despicable Monsignor John Day and so many MORE who ALL worked under Pell! Coincidence? Doubt it!
Child abuse within the Catholic Church (and many other established religious institutions) is ENDEMIC and out of control, here and around the world! Apparently, Pope Francis admitted that it is likely that ONE in FIFTY priests is a known, active paedophile and the overwhelming majority of the rest KNOW about it but say and do nothing in order to protect the church. If you are ever in any doubt about the staggering ENORMITY of this crime throughout the Catholic Church in Australia, just go and browse through the following website that lists literally hundreds of paedophile cases (past and present) against priests, brothers and non-clergy in the Catholic system – it makes very disturbing reading:
http://www.brokenrites.org.au/drupal/
No wonder people are leaving the church in their millions! Their sick, twisted hypocrisy has DESTROYED the once vibrant faith of countless millions of people who will never look at a priest or nun in the same way again!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2690575/Pope-Francis-admits-two-cent-Roman-Catholic-priests-paedophiles-interview-Italian-newspaper.html
Seems the mother withdrew her children because she implied, the freaks were using the daughter’s toilet.
My local shopping centre caters for all. Family suite. Disabled toilets. Women. Men and unisex. Easy one solved.
Pell was challenged today with proposition that RC would be demanding they re-struct the church. Yes, a structure where someone is in control. Pell went white.
Florence nee Fedup what is this obsession with public toilets being separate??
Ok I get it with the urinal but everyone at home has communal toilets!
Why do urinals even exist except for ease of cleaning?
Having used a restaurant toilet in Paris once where to use the cubicles one had to walk through the urinal it made me realise just how precious we are about toilets? Mind you I was there as a teacher on a school teip with two 15 year old girls and spent the rest of the meal quietly praying neither of them would need the loo.
But seriously a transgender boy uses the girls toilets at school and the girls will see less than they would at the pool!
Salstara,
Are you sure the first link you mentioned is genuine? No author or publisher that I could find; mangled english as would make the article almost indecipherable. Some examples:
“In propinquity to Bishop Mulkearns, it is for a Royal Commission to inspect his control and pull conclusions,” informal higher Sister Dominica writes.
Automatic doors open for a women as they travel into a categorical opening and Ms Short asks to pronounce to a Sister in charge.
Ms Short points to one small lady during a back, her crony Julie, who she says is failing of cancer.
“She was raped by Gerald Ridsdale on a day, and a nun took her upstairs to a washroom and spotless her out with a toothbrush,” she says.
As for Pell. I saw him on Q&A and was surprised how dumb he was. I’m tending to believe him when he says he can’t remember things – he would have been looking the other way because his paedophile mates would have turned him around three times, blindfolded him and told him to count to 100.
This is a letter I recently wrote to my local paper (which pub;ishes most of my letters) on the subject of marriage:
Sensible, secular countries like France have developed a sensible system. And they are far from being alone.
Because marriage involves legal consequences, the only recognised marriage is one between two consenting adults performed in a Registry Office.
For those couples who have religious feelings which make them want the blessing of their religion on their union, there is an option for them to arrange an additional religious service appropriately conducted.
For those couples who are not same sex there are usually no problems, although if either party has been divorced that might present a hurdle too high.
For those which are same sex, they have to negotiate with the relevant religious leader in their area who may or may not be prepared to add this additional imprimatur on their union.
Whatever the outcome on the religious front, the couple IS legally married.
Do we really need an expensive plebiscite to go down this straightforward route?
If still calling it marriage is the stumbling block, then call it what it really has always been – A Civil Union!
And don’t forget to amend all the other relevant legislation, while starting to live in the modern world not the out of date past!
Geoff Andrews. I am guessing here but the article Saltsarat linked to may have been translated to a language other than english and then translated back to english. However this link is to the same story on the ABC website.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-25/royal-commission-abuse-victims-confront-nuns-caring-for-bishop/7197812
And as for Pell? I think you are being too generous!
He manages the Vatican finances which are substantial. The Italian Government could borrow from the Vatican treasury. No he is not befuddled. He is a good liar but a lousy actor. Listen carefully to his evidence? He recites it like a child at the christmas concert! It is well rehearsed but definitely not from the heart!
Good effort, lord!
The gillard NBN gave us no choice between fibre and copper. Malc, (unfortunately, I have lost the source but a wit pointed out the onomatopoeia in turnball’s initials, MT!) has given us the choice of copper or, for a price, fibre. The fact that we will have to pay for turds like the rabbott, MT, bullock and the loonies is galling.
I am not surprised that the loonies are prepared to sacrifice a couple of women in their long term aim to destroy Labor by dealing with the libs(I doubt the nats would deal, although preference deals are worthwhile???)
There is a slight chance that MT won’t get a majority in both houses but, if not the balance will be back with the 10%ers and not with some ordinary nice people without degrees, religious hangups or major party ambitions.
ps
Your understanding of truth is hard to follow because what I see, hear and write and what you see, hear and write have some disparate truths.
The use of ” pure” is puzzling? Is there a truth people have that is not adulterated (apart from the godly)?
If the pope is serious about wanting to clean up the Catholic Church, he will sack Pell the minute his testimony is ended. Sack him, not tell him to take sick leave. Not holding my breath.
Kerri,
Thanks for the link to the original article mentioned by Saltsarat.
Even if Pell personally managed the church finances of Ballarat, Melbourne or Australia I don’t think that would have made him an obvious choice by the Vatican from all possible world candidates. It would be like appointing Barnaby Joyce Head of the World Bank.
No, I reckon the word has come down. “Get him out of the firing line.”
I want the Royal Commission to ask, “What medication are you taking for your heart condition?” and “What is the most significant thing you’ve done as Vatican financial guru?”
Thank you, Kerri. I apologise to Geoff Andrews for using the incorrect link to this particular article. The link that Kerri used is the correct one. These brave victims of horrendous, ongoing sexual assault by Ridsdale have revealed the unbelievable depths of his depravity and hypocrisy. The fact that Pell defended and supported this creature over and over again shows that he (Pell) is absolutely unsuitable to be in the position he holds and should face criminal prosecution. Pell is going down in history (along with his close friend and ally, the equally reckless idiot, Tony Abbott) as two of the most despised men in Australia (right next to the war criminal, John Howard).