Alan B,

I looked up CAFR and all that I got was,
http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/auditor/cafr.html

could you steer me in the right direction, please?

I suspect that George Pell will win his appeal against his conviction.

Meanwhile I think that it is good that a cardinal has finally (at last) been brought to trial in a civil court.
Prior to this event the senior members of the "catholic" church seemed to presume that they were beyond the reach of the civil courts.

Why haven't more cardinals, archbishops and bishops been brought to trial before the civil courts? And found guilty of the crimes that they obviously committed. How many were convicted and jailed as a result of the comprehensive inquiry into the well organized systematic cover-up of the decades long brutality/treatment of children in Ireland? Why haven't some of these chaps in the USA been jailed, when it is now quite obvious that they orchestrated a systematic cover-up, with the consequences that their diocese was bankrupted due to billions of dollars compensation payments.

Under the benighted leadership of the previous two popes and going back for a very long time too, the college of cardinals has run a world-wide Rock Spider protection society/racket.

Or a well organized conspiracy to pervert/prevent the course of justice. The two purposes of which were (only) to protect the financial and property assets of the church, and the "good name" (ha! ha!) of the church altogether. This was quite obviously the case with the mechanisms that George Pell put in place while he was in Melbourne.

Everything that these chaps did was inter-related at both a psychic and political level. They all lived in the same toxic can of worms. And contributed to its continuation.
That having been said it could be said that George Pell has become the fall-guy or scapegoat "victim" for this cover-up conspiracy.

Alan B, again, your reasoning that it was “a very fair hearing” is baffling in the light of the improbable verdict reached by the jury on the evidence, namely, the uncorroborated evidence presented by the complainant, and the demolition of same by the defence. It appears the jury members may have been out to ‘get Pell’ regardless of the evidence put before them.

The article by Peter Wales, ‘When a Jury Gets it Ludicrously Wrong’, Quadrant Online, 15 March 2019
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/03/when-a-jury-gets-it-ludicrously-wrong/

is forwarded for your enlightenment.

Yep when Daffy concedes defeat in the appeal you know its all over. Problem will be that the guilty verdict will always stick and the rainbow lobby who use to spit the dummy when Pell would not give them communion have achieved their target (destroy complete confidence in Catholic church). Personally I have no confidence in Catholic church although I know a number of fine Catholics and Priests. What it has done to me and many others is destroy any faith in then Justice system.

ffs the maggot STUCK HIS COCK INTO TWO YOUNG BOYS MOUTHS! IN THE CHURCH VESTRY.. HE WAS STILL IN HIS REGALIA! lets all stop trying to defend the indefensible. He's a maggot. A grub. If there is a hell he should be boiling in oil right now. He got off lightly. Let him rot. Personally I'd let him hang but hey..

The arguments go around in ever decreasing circles that eventually disappear somewhere.
George has a heaven sent opportunity to sweep all of this aside and pursue a point that would make everything else null and void - simply take the word of God to those suffering in prison. He is well qualified and positioned.
To argue the legal 'toss' will only make him a companion of the legal fraternity, which is a no-win without fee looser.