POPE FRANCIS, who pledged a policy of “zero
tolerance” for sexually abusive clergy in the Catholic Church, has
turned out to be all too tolerant. On Thursday, Australian police
brought criminal charges against Cardinal George Pell, a top Vatican official and kitchen- cabinet adviser to the pope, for multiple alleged incidents of sexual assault.
The charges against Cardinal Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the pope’s hand-picked agent of administrative reform, shook the Holy See,
notwithstanding long-standing allegations that he ignored, dismissed
and excused cases of sexual misconduct during his pre-Vatican years as a
priest and church official in Australia. That included the crimes of a notorious pedophile priest with whom Cardinal Pell shared a house for two years in the 1970s.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pope-franciss-toleration-of-sexually-abusive-clergy-leaves-a-stain/2017/07/02/6245787c-5d13-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html?utm_term=.8b6836747f64
