Photo by Kerry Myers
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\u201cUp until his arrest and trial, he was the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s most senior figure within Australia. He also had a leading role as the Vatican\u2019s treasurer. The church suspended him as cardinal in June 2017, and removed him from office in December 2018. His term as treasurer ended on Sunday,\u201d reports The Gay Star News<\/em>.<\/p>\n GSN <\/em>continues, \u201cA jury found Pell guilty at a trial in Melbourne in December. However, legal restrictions imposed on the media stopped the world\u2019s press from naming him. A judge lifted those legal restrictions today ahead of his sentencing. The court found him guilty of abusing two choirboys in Melbourne in 1996. One of his victims has since killed himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Pell was one of the Catholic Church\u2019s biggest critics of Ireland\u2019s passage of marriage equality. <\/p>\n In a 2015 interview<\/a> in the Catholic Herald UK<\/em>: Pell [referring to the fact the Church had had to surrender its rights in Catholic adoption agencies in Britain and Northern Ireland], \u201cUrged young people to get involved in political life and warned the laity against fleeing from the world and instead becoming preoccupied with church services and tasks of the priesthood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need watered down and uncertain priests, and we don\u2019t need lay faithful who seem determined to fill the gap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSame-sex<\/a> marriage votes,\u201d Pell concluded, \u201cshows society is abandoning Christian foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n A consistent opponent of marriage equality, the venomous Pell repeatedly referred to same-sex<\/a> marriage in the most pernicious terms.<\/p>\n In a piece he penned<\/a> for the Catholic News World\u00a0<\/em>entitled\u201dDocument on Marriage\u201d that was essentially an Op-ed, Pell said, \u201cMarriage is a natural institution whereby a man<\/a> and a woman<\/a> give themselves to each other for life in an exclusive sexual relationship that is open to procreation. It is a union that is publicly recognised, honoured and supported because of its unique capacity to generate children and to meet children\u2019s deepest needs for the love and attachment of both their father and their mother. In the words of Professor Robert George of Princeton University:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMarriage is the community formed by a man<\/a> and a woman<\/a> who publicly consent to share their whole lives, in a type of relationship oriented toward the begetting, nurturing and educating of children together. This openness to procreation, as the community\u2019s natural fulfilment, distinguishes this community from other types.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n By contrast, although the community formed by a homosexual couple<\/a> may involve genuine caring, affection and commitment to one another, it is not an inherently procreative community, because their sexual relationship is not designed to generate children. Marriage is not simply a loving, committed relationship between two people, but a unique kind of physical and emotional union which is open to the possibility of new life.\u201d<\/p>\n With this verdict, Pell has the dubious distinction of being the senior most Catholic official convicted of a sexual offenses. <\/p>\n Ironically his conviction comes on the heels of Pope Francis\u2019 Vatican summit on the problem of sexual abuse in the church.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The post Australia\u2019s Cardinal George Pell, Vociferous Opponent of Marriage Equality, Convicted of Sexually Abusing Two 13 Year-Old Choirboys<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n