Cardinal George Pell, currently residing in the Vatican, has been deemed too unwell to return to Australia to answer questions in a Royal Commission into Clergy Abuse. Whist the sexual abuse of children covers the whole country, Pell’s own diocese of Ballarat in Victoria is notorious and it’s important that he front the Commission.
So if he can’t (won’t) come home for the hearing on Feb 29th, then 55 victims and support people are going to Rome to bear witness to his testimony!
Oh yeah! 
Addendum/amendment: it’s not 55 people going to Rome, got confused with the $55k gofundme target. Sorry.
Tool ill to travel my ass. I’m sure the Vatican could afford to buy him a first class ticket to Australia. Why is Francis still shielding this abuse enabler? So much for any meaningful change with the new pope.
A doc wrote a letter to the editor in our state rag last week, offering to accompany Pell on his journey with a full medical team to make sure he was ok. Also offered to make sure they were FIRST CLASS tickets…because, y’know, people like Pell can’t slum it in Cattle Class.
Maybe he can make an appearance with a wheelchair and 02 [SIZE=2]mask. It worked so well for Chris Skase after all. 
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Oh, I’m sure he’ll be as frail as can be, to garner max sympathy from the masses.
The way the gofundme campaign is going though, it might be possible to send the entire Royal Commission to Rome to hear his testimony. That’d be blood hilarious!
So first, a bunch of sexual abuses occur under his watch and now you want him to flash his willy in full public view? :dubious:
I don’t understand the relevance of the first class ticket cost in rebutting the claim that he is too ill to travel. Can you explain?
Pell’s condition is some sort of heart disease. There are quite a few conditions that first class would ameliorate, by providing extra room for oxygen, allowing for easier and more frequent movement, etc. I don’t know if that’s what coremelt was referring to, or if it would satisfy Pell’s cardiologist, but there’s a connection there.
I haven’t seen any specifics. If boremelt is aware of some statement by Pell’s medical team saying that he’s too ill to fly coach, but it’s acceptable to,fly first class, and Pell subsequently relied on that determination to say he could not attend, then I would see the connection.
As it stands, though, I don’t know what coremelt means.
Try again, but this time bat your eyelashes in an innocent way. Works better.
Why don’t you explain it, then? In specifics, not with implication and reliance on some “everyone knows” nudge wink.
Come on Dicker, its not too hard to understand. People with serious illness do travel all the time, a blanket “too ill to travel” is bullshit. Cardinal Pell is not in an ICU at a hospital in Rome, he is well enough to continue to perform his job at the vatican as senior financial controller.
As mentioned several Doctors in Australia offered to accompany him on the flight for free. Two first class tickets and a doctor in the seat next to him with oxygen for the trip and he would have been completely fine. Otherwise, charter a private jet with a medical team on board, the Vatican can easily afford that as well.
Here is the article with the offer of help and some more details of his condition:
Oh, and my name is coremelt, not boremelt, Dicker.
First: I did not intend to play the “change the name” game and apologize for inadvertently modifying your name. It was either a typo or an enthusiastic spell check function, not a deliberate swipe. Very sorry about that.
Now, to the substance: I don’t get the sense that a “senior financial controller” involves physical exertion. Frankly, as I picture it, it could be done by someone in a motorized wheelchair or even bedridden. So I don’t really see how “well enough to do his job,” in this case implies “well enough to fly.” If he were a lion tamer or a personal trainer, I’d agree more readily, but a senior financial controller seems like a highly non-physical job.
Now, I agree that a chartered flight with a medical team on board to provide oxygen and treatment of any emergencies would probably be safe, but then it becomes a case of risk vs reward. It’s not a case of refusing to testify – he’s just doing it via video instead of in person. I don’t understand why any additional benefit of in-person testimony would outweigh the cost and risk of a chartered flight with in-flight oxygen and a medical team.
Can you explain that calculus?
Flying first class with a doctor next to you and an oxygen bottle is also not any kind of physical exertion. Its about as draining as lying in a big comfortable bed for 12 hours.
As for why he should back, there is a very strong feeling in Australia that he is being shielded by the vatican and he should come back to face his accusers, all of them, not just the ones that can be sent to Rome from the gofundme campaign.
Tim Minchin says it best, as usual.
If he is being shielded by the Vatican, isn’t that an even better reason for him not to go back? How’s it benefit him to cooperate with the Australian governmental commission at all, given that there are accusations that he helped cover up sexual assault and may have even committed sexual assault himself?
In first class, they don’t use the cattle prods nearly as much. Way easier on a weak heart.
For the non Australians, Cardinal Pell is not just accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by priests underneath him, but of actively paying a victim to keep quiet and also when a priest was accused of molesting parishioners, he just transferred them to a different parish so they could keep molesting with a fresh batch.
He’s since spent years claiming he “can’t recall” and spending huge amounts on legal defense. He’s cowardly scum, an enabler of abuse and runs and hides behind the skirts of the vatican rather than do the right thing and come clean.
And Captain Amazing, he’s a priest. Surely we should hold catholic priests to a higher standard of ethics and behaviour than just doing “whatever is best for him”. The right thing to do it make it right, plead guilty if he is guilty and assist the survivors to get compensation from the church. And the evidence is fairly compelling from many multiple victims that he is indeed guilty.
There are those who believe the Vatican must remove that shield, that it is wrong and contrary to the teachings of JC Himself to have that shield, that the hierarchs who are under imputation in the sexual assault cases should ALL be returned to their home countries, and they as well as those who remain there should be deprived of ANY protection on the part of the Church from having to deal with the affair before the civilian courts as common citizen with no privilege whatsoever. Basis, Matthew 18:6