Foxy I agree:
'child protection lost'
There are those who wish to make this all about the Catholic Church but it is about much more than that.
Our legal system is ill-equipped to deal with cases of sexual abuse for usually there are no independent witnesses. It becomes one person's word against another.
As a society we are more inclined to believe the adult and when the event happened a long time ago it becomes even more difficult.
In this case Pell never took the stand to give his version. Instead he called witnesses who argued that it was impossible to have occurred.
Impossible? No. Unlikely? Yes. But as someone familiar with the rituals I simply cannot reject the possibility that it happened.
Yet here we have a case of someone who simply had far too much to lose. I know many Catholic Priests who have known Pell for a long time - they had no opinion about his guilt but were not surprised that he was charged.

Haunting pictures showed a small red tricycle tied
to the Carmelite Monastery's front gates where
Pell stayed the night, surrounded by colourful
ribbons. It's been since removed.

Pell has since left the Carmelite Monastery this
morning headed for Sydney. His swift departure comes as
police investigate the vandalism of St. Patrick's
Cathedral.

"Rot in Hell Pell,"was emblazoned on the doors of the
Cathedral and -

"The Law Protects The Powerful," was also spray-painted
on the Cathedral forefront.

Arch. Bishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli stated he was
not surprised by the vandalism.

"There's such strong emotions around all these matters."
The community is divided.

Pope Francis has offered up a mass for the victims and
survivors of abuse. His statements thus far have been
measured.

Interesting times ahead.

Steve Kate's in Catallaxy Files agrees that it's all about politics, not about paedophiles or their victims.

"For the left it is symbolism alone that matters. In the right it is that justice has finally been done".

He says that the left will "attack you for your class membership in whatever way they wish to define you". The left are "totalitarian through and through". Ideological thugs who "hunt in packs". Pell was guilty just because he was a Catholic Archbishop. The left's justice is that of the "Lubyanka ….. the show trial and the bullet to the head".

'He says that the left will "attack you for your class membership in whatever way they wish to define you". The left are "totalitarian through and through"'

so true ttbn. Who do you think their next target will be? They hunted and hated Abbott. They started it with Morrison during the bushfires although thanks to Murdoch and others their has been a push back by quite Australians to this nasty, ugly and deceitful bunch.

Dear Shadow Minister,

I accept that Abbott gave his support to the RC but this was how the right wing press reacted to the announcement of that Royal Commission.

Paul Kelly stated: “The dismal, populist and doomed quality of Australian governance has been on display this week with Julia Gillard announcing an in-principle royal commission into child sexual abuse, a panicked Tony Abbott falling into line and an ignorant media offering cheer upon cheer. Rarely has an Australian government embarked on such a sensitive and vast project in profound ignorance of what it was doing, with virtually no serious policy consideration and driven entirely by politics.”

Miranda Devine said; “It’s hard to separate the royal commission into child sexual abuse from politics and anti-Catholic agendas, in the fetid atmosphere that currently exists in Canberra.”

Andrew Bolt claimed the Royal Commission was the result of “a great onslaught of hate in the media directed at the Catholic Church – its traditions, its practices and its most effective advocate [Cardinal George Pell] in this country” and that “It is a pity that Tony Abbott seems too worried about being trapped politically as Captain Catholic to defend the church: ‘Opposition Leader Tony Abbott also said priests should tell police when they knew a child was being sexually abused’”

So please don't give the impression the right were for this at all, they plainly were not.

The Royal Commission that the right were so against “handled over 41,000 calls, 25,000 letters and e-mails and held over 8,000 private sessions. More importantly it made 2,559 referrals to police.”

See runner, your own man Bolt conflated Pell with the bloody Royal Commission you dolt. You have so little true regard for the abused children of this country don't you.

"It is important to remember that this case was not about
a man who was a "lightning rod" for dissent in
his church.Nor was it about the different strands of
Catholicism, nor ideology. The case was about
child protection. Yesterday - child protection lost. "

No it was about this one man. A man who was a symbol of a hated section of society was gaoled based on the uncorroborated word of one other man.

The SR's of the world can rant all they like about how much they despise the Catholic church in Australia, how much damage they perceive it to have done etc etc.

But if we have a justice system where a man from a presently out-of-favour group can be gaoled despite the lack of overwhelming evidence (or even underwhelming evidence), then we have a very different society to that which previously applied and to which we previously aspired. The Catholics are the current disfavoured group but that won't always be the case. Which symbol of the next hated group will be persecuted based on uncorroborated assertion?

These things once unleashed rarely remain controlled.

Ultimately Pell was a scapegoat for all the perceived sins of the church. His guilt or lack thereof on this specific accusation was almost incidental to the issue for most people. Just read SR's rants to see that.

But it wasn't incidental to 7 HC judges and for that we can be, for the moment, thankful.