There were other charges dropped shortly before the committal hearing in March of 2018 after one accuser died in January and yet another was determined to be medically unfit to give evidence .
Although the Magistrate dropped several of the charges , she did find enough evidence was presented during the pre-trial hearings to take the case to trial . Cardinal Pell was granted bail until his next court hearing and has already surrendered his passport and is not allowed to leave the country . His attorneys were granted a request that the two allegations of child sex abuse be handled in two separate trials .
The decision to send Pell ’ s case to trial is a blow to an already contentious Catholic Church , which has been fighting allegation of sexual abuse amid its clergy for decades . Thousands of cases around the world have led to investigations and convictions in countries including the United States , Canada , Ireland and Australia .
Mentioned earlier , Australia ’ s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made recommendations that the Vatican should change ancient canon laws in order to reduce the risk of future sexual abuse . These included making celibacy voluntary for priests , and any abuse admission made during confession must be reported to the police immediately .
Pell ’ s guilt or innocence remains to be seen , but this episode will go down as the historical moment when the church ’ s concern for its reputation was placed back in context where it belongs . Add to that the extraordinary apology from the Holy Father ; it surely marks a point of great transformation for the church . Past are the days when the church holds itself accountable on to its own internal processes and laws . Hopefully they will be past ... forever . end of article
SIDE NOTE FROM ROBERT DAVID STEELE
“ According to Jack and Diane Ruhl of the National
Catholic Reporter , who decided to research this particular topic , since 1950 the Vatican has spent a disgusting $ 3,994,797,060.10 . That ’ s nearly $ 4 billion to keep things hush hush . That number may even be a bit conservative , as we cannot know for sure the agreed upon ‘ under the table ’ amount .
The figure is based on a three-month investigation of data , which includes a review of over 7,800 articles from LexisNexis Academic and NCR databases and information from BishopAccountability . org . Reports from the U . S . Conference of Catholic Bishops were also used .”
https :// www . ncronline . org / news / accountability / ncrresearch-costs-sex-abuse-crisis-us-church-underestimated
http :// www . patheos . com / blogs / friendlyatheist / 2015 / 11 / 04 / the-catholic-church-has-paid-out-3994797060-10-as-aresult-of-the-sex-abuse-scandals /
http :// bishopaccountability . org /
http :// www . collective-evolution . com / 2018 / 05 / 09 / thevatican-has-paid-nearly-4-billion-to-settle-for-childrenharmed-by-sexual-abuse /
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