Australian cardinal george pell, who was surprisingly acquitted of sexual abuse charges a week ago, has sharply criticized the proceedings brought against him.
He wondered if the witness who testified against him had been used, the 78-year-old said in an interview on the sky news channel. "I don’t know what the poor guy was up to."He himself has been made a "scapegoat" for the terrible sexual crimes of others.
Former vatican finance chief also criticized australian police for accusing him of child abuse. He would not be surprised if he faced other similar charges, he said in the interview. Australian media reported that police are investigating new charges against pell dating back to the 1970s. There was no confirmation of this at first.
In march 2019, the former archbishop of melbourne was sentenced to six years in prison for the abuse of two choirboys in the 1990s. The highest australian court gave then however on 7. April granted cardinal’s appeal for lack of evidence. Pell was then released from prison after about 13 months in custody. He was the highest-ranking cleric in the history of the catholic church who was convicted of child abuse.
Pell spoke of a "culture war" against people like him who stood up for conservative christian values. There is also a systematic attempt to eliminate christian principles of marriage, gender and sexuality. "I believe that contributed to what happened to me."Most of those who supported his campaign against corruption in the vatican believed that the accusations against him were related to the reform of the church finances that he had pushed for. He had no proof of this, however.
"One consolation for me is that for no christian is an earthly court the final judgment," pell said. "I know that i will not be able to exchange my dear god."The cardinal wants to live in sydney in the future after his release. Possibly, however, he will travel briefly to rome to pack his things there, said pell.