#Cardinal George Pell

[zmkccommonplace]

It’s a making present of Christ’s sacrifice. It’s an explicit act of adoration. It involves the whole of our persons. It needs faith to be practiced.

Cardinal George Pell on the centrality of liturgical celebration

[paulthepoke]

The Watchmen: Catholic Cardinal Pell, Russia & Ukraine, Iran, Abraham Accords, Brazil

Watchmen: Catholic Cardinal Pell, Russia & Ukraine, Iran, Abraham Accords, Brazil

Welcome to The Watchmen, just a couple of dudes sitting on the wall watching the world go by. On this edition of the Watchmen… Cardinal George Pell has been identified as the author of a document critical of Pope Francis. Was Cardinal Pell treated fairly by the Roman Catholic Church? Cardinal Pell was a central figure in a child sex abuse case. This is sensitive and messy. Do your own…

[i-am-the-queen-of-trash]

reblogging to add the latest Pell update

[riddled-with-teeth]

rest in piss bastard

[radicalgraff]

Graffiti painted on the doors of St Patricks Cathedral in Melbourne in April 2020, shortly after Cardinal George Pell was released from prison following a High Court apeal.

The Cardinal, who died on Wednesday was previously convicted of sexually abusing choirboys during his tenure as Archbishop of Melbourne.

[lingshanhermit]

Lingshan Hermit: Why are you hypocritical?

In Western society, Catholicism has been regarded as one of the most sacred religions for hundreds of years. According to the latest data, about one sixth of the people on Earth are Catholics. Historically, Catholicism has given birth to many great figures like Joan of Arc. However, as a great denomination, the stains of Catholicism should not be ignored either.

Since the 1980s, a series of scandals about Catholic child abuse began to be sporadically reported by the Western press. People in Western society began to be horrified to realize that the priests they revered were not as holy as they thought. Because of the huge influence of Catholicism in the West, those Catholic clergymen accused of child abuse were mostly dealt with discreetly, and most of them were transferred to other areas to continue their pastoral duties. In 2019, Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison by an Australian court for sexually abusing two boys in a choir decades ago, probably the highest sentence a Catholic priest has ever received so far. Even today, people have long been numb to such incidents. Such things have even been made into movies by Hollywood. I've seen one of the movies called Doubt. In fact, the history of Catholic child abuse can be traced back to the 11th century book Liber Gomorrhianus, but this is only traceable history. Many things happened but were not recorded.

I did not mention Catholicism here to accuse them. In fact, such things exist in almost all religions (of course, not just religions, but also in many secular groups.) Catholicism is exposed simply because it is in the West, in a society where news reporting is relatively free. In fact, this is a universal human problem, not a problem unique to any particular religion.

Such things always provoke our thinking. People will ask, why do they do this? Aren't they people of faith? Do they still believe in their God? In my opinion, the Catholic case is not an isolated one. In the East, Confucianism faces similar problems. I am certainly not saying that Confucianism abuses children. What I am saying is that Confucianism has long been accused of producing hypocrites in Chinese society - this is a fact. As a Buddhist, I must point out that Buddhism also produces hypocrites, and for reasons similar to Confucianism. So this is not a problem for Catholicism as a religion alone, it is a problem faced by all religions.

I have pondered this issue before. In my opinion, the plight faced by Catholicism is similar to that of Confucianism. They have these problems largely because they lack practical self-cultivation systems. Historically, the great founders of those religions, be it Jesus or Confucius, all had genuine practical self-cultivation and enlightenment experiences. It is said by many researchers that Jesus went to India when he was young to learn the Dharma, but clearly, what he learned in India was not passed down to later generations. He only gave them some basic theoretical teachings. The same thing happened in Confucianism. Confucius was a quite enlightened person, but he obviously did not pass down those practical methods to his students either. He only taught a lot of theoretical things. The result is that the descendants of Confucius and Jesus only got theories, but could not experience the enlightenment that the founders of religions once experienced. They only knew that such a state was good, but did not know how to arrive at such a state. It should be known that the realms advocated by those saints were just naturally manifested after they reached a certain level of enlightenment, not something they deliberately did. And an ordinary person without such experience, if they naturally manifest their own nature, they would only do the opposite of saints. If such a person unfortunately holds a position like a priest, in an environment that requires them to exhibit certain sacred qualities, they can only pretend that they possess such qualities. But I don't know how long such pretense can last.

Imagine that something like this happened in Buddhism. If one day, all the practical methods of Buddhism were lost. But Buddhists are still told not to cling, to be like the Buddha and not have emotions about anything. But there is no method at all, no place to start. What would that look like? You may continue to stay in Buddhism, but doubt everything described in the Buddhist scriptures. Or simply not believe them. There is no one around you who can experience the state described in the Buddhist scriptures. Slowly you will feel that they are all myths, but you are still in Buddhism, you cannot say those are false. Over time, you will become very hypocritical. This is the plight faced by Catholicism and Confucianism. In religions without practical systems, the emergence of hypocrites is almost inevitable. Without real practical systems, real religious experiences cannot be produced. Without real religious experiences, true faith cannot be generated. And without true faith, your faith cannot withstand any test, and corruption is only a matter of time. If you cannot experience the state once experienced by Shakyamuni Buddha, the Sixth Patriarch, and Vimalakirti, you certainly won't believe what the Buddhist scriptures say. You won't believe what your guru says either. You won't believe in reincarnation, karma. You won't believe Milarepa can pass through stones, nor will you believe you can become a Buddha. You will only treat these as myths. But you will pretend to believe, while in fact not believing. Things like this happen every day in Catholicism and Confucianism, and of course, in Buddhism as well.

I have been to Catholic cathedrals. In those beautifully magnificent cathedrals, on those colorful stained glass windows, are painted miracles of saints from the past. When I look at those beautiful paintings, look at those magical stories from those distant eras depicted in the paintings, look at the saints floating in the air in the paintings, I wonder how many priests would believe those are true historical events. Most priests without real religious experiences would only see them as a distant myth. They would not believe at all that those things really happened.

Imagine if a person is placed in a position where he can dominate others, if he has no real practical experience, if he does not really believe in what he professes, if he only pretends to believe, and such a person is also required to be celibate, what would happen? Unfortunately, this is the reality for many religious people.

There are many demons wandering in our world. What they love to do most is to sabotage your practice. They love to drag others down. They will seduce you, provoke you, whisper in your ears. And those who are close to God and Buddha are their prime targets. If someone without true faith becomes a priest, if he runs a Catholic orphanage, if there are many children in the orphanage, if those children revere him unconditionally, if he has the power over life and death over them - he can make a child clean toilets for half a year with one word. What would happen in such a situation? One should know, demons are prowling around him, whispering in his ears. Even someone like me who has been immersed in Buddhism for over 20 years and has no doubts sometimes gets influenced by them, let alone those with no true faith at all. Those without true faith, when placed in such positions, you cannot expect them to control their desires. This is like putting a beauty-loving woman in a room full of beautiful clothes. Do you think she won't touch those clothes? Once he opens the door of desire, he can no longer close it. He can only cover up sins with more sins.

Many years ago, I said that if there is no faith, laws alone are not enough. Humans are very smart. They can think of many ways to circumvent laws. 200 years ago, America's founding fathers spent 127 days constructing the US Constitution. They envisioned all kinds of possibilities to contain potential evils. But in today's world 200 years later, the legal system they painstakingly built is obviously overwhelmed. The things happening on Earth these days are proving my point. I have always believed that morality without faith cannot withstand impacts. And those superficial faiths are also far from enough to withstand the temptation of demons. They cannot withstand any test and are easily defeated. These days, you can see what those people you once thought were fair, objective and faithful are doing. You can see many seemingly faithful people brazenly doing many jaw-dropping things. In fact, this is no surprise at all, just the inevitable result of not having true faith. Such things have actually been happening all along, it just so happens that you saw it this time.

Finally, it should be noted that although Buddhism has practical systems, this does not mean Buddhist practitioners all understand practice well. - So, what has happened in Catholicism can also happen to Buddhists. - In fact, most Buddhists do not understand what practice really means. Those who think they are practicing, their so-called practice is usually not practice at all. Many people's understanding of practice is just spending a lot of time reciting mantras or going into retreat. But this is not necessarily practice. I have seen many people who make efforts reciting every day, for over a decade, but their ego and afflictions show no signs of wear and tear at all. The way they think about issues is exactly the same after a decade as it was a decade ago. This is because the self is much smarter than them. They think they are smart and can fight the self, thinking the self won't steal their practice right under their nose. But the self is much smarter than them. It will very covertly turn all their efforts to its own use. They won't notice at all that their practice has long been corrupted, transformed and tamed by the self, without damaging the self one bit. Such people are usually very superstitious about rituals. They emphasize a lot the function of rituals. They think that by getting a very powerful ritual or secret instruction, they can attain liberation - this kind of thinking is as ridiculous as those who think getting the Dragon Slaying Saber will allow them to command the realm. They spend a lot of time seeking and practicing rituals, but never observe and change their own values. This kind of practice is really no different from having no practical system at all, and is even more misleading. You will become even more unclear about your own state. You will think you have been practicing all along. This will make you hypocritical, because you have practiced for a long time without results. You practice without results for a long time, but you don't want others to know you have gotten no results from long-term practice, hence hypocrisy arises.

This article was first published on Lingshan Hermit's Sina Weibo, Google Blogger and other social media on November 22, 2020. Copyright owned by the author. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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灵山居士：你为什么会虚伪？

[apesoformythoughts]

“The Catholic Synod of Bishops is now busy constructing what they think of as ‘God’s dream’ of synodality. Unfortunately this divine dream has developed into a toxic nightmare despite the bishops’ professed good intentions.

They have produced a 45-page booklet which presents its account of the discussions of the first stage of ‘listening and discernment’, held in many parts of the world, and it is one of the most incoherent documents ever sent out from Rome…”

— Cardinal George Pell: “The Catholic Church must free itself from this ‘toxic nightmare’”

[dialogue-queered]

Australian Issues Primer

It is always contentious to protest at a funeral - but Pell, like Ratzinger, lived by the theological sword with adverse consequences globally - so the pushback has to be equally tough.

Extract 1:

The group described Pell as a “key figure of right-wing conservatism” who made derogatory statements about LGBTQ+ people, labelling same-sex relationships a greater health hazard than smoking. He also suggested abortion was a worse moral failing than child abuse.

April Holcombe, Community Action for Rainbow Rights co-convener, said the group could not stay silent.

Extract 2:

Some Sydney-siders have been tying ribbons to the fence of the cathedral, to commemorate and give voice to survivors and victims of clergy abuse.

Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday that those ribbons were being removed, prompting criticism of church staff.

Simon Hunt, a satirist sometimes known as Pauline Pantsdown, had encouraged locals to emulate the ribbon-tying conducted in Ballarat during the royal commission.

“[Pell’s] death has triggered a lot of memories and feelings among people who are survivors of child sexual assault. I’m not a Christian, I’m not personally affected by child sexual assault, aside from relationships with friends and family who have been,” he said.

“It was very much the whitewashing of George Pell that made me go forward and start that campaign – although when I got there was already a ribbon there.”

[gayteensupreme]

one day i will make a journey to australias best gender-neutral toilet, the grave of cardinal george pell

[duran-duran-less-official]

Today I learned that The Chaser crashed Cardinal George Pell's funeral.

oMg i CaNt BeLiEvE a BrAnD iS rUiNiNg tHiS SiTe

mate our business is crashing priests funerals and getting songs about cum to chart, this site will be fine

[kyndaris]

The Never Changing Nature of Humanity and War

As another year ends, I look back over the major events that defined it and despair. Humanity seems desperate to repeat the same mistakes of old. Though there are moments when we shine, we are still motivated by greed, jealousy and pride. Look no further than the two wars currently being fought, the posturing in the Pacific and how little our world has done to combat climate change. Still, I suppose things could be worse. We might, after all, be suffering the effects of a nuclear winter (except no-one yet has the cajones to start such a huge chain reaction just yet).

But I digress.

January 2023 was a mess of events. Here in Australia, news of Pope Benedict passing away was only in headlines on New Year's Day. Other notable deaths included George Pell (a cardinal who was sent to prison for child sexual abuse in 2019 but who had his convictions later quashed) and the former king of Greece. From there, the world spiralled with Europe enduring very warm temperatures for winter (turns out 2023 was the hottest year on record!), Jacinda Ardern resigned from being Prime Minister of New Zealand/ Aotearoa. In Brazil, Bolsonaro tried to pull a Trump by stoking a Capitol-riot-style insurrection. This was later met be counter protesters.

As the year progressed, Kevin McCarthy was elected as speaker to the House of Representatives after going through fifteen rounds of voting. He was later removed and later replaced by another Republican: Mike Johnson. News of his Kevin McCarthy's unsuccessful bids were later drowned out by the shooting down of a Chinese air balloon. This led to several other unidentified objects to be shot down, which later turned out to be weather balloons set up by civilian scientists.

The United Kingdom enjoyed protests and strikes among public servants due to rising costs of living. Madrid protested their leftist government. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's First Minister, resigned.

But in case the first quarter of the year wasn't exciting enough, Mother Nature also wanted to have a little fun by sending a cyclone towards New Zealand (Aotearoa), with many residents suffering from flash-flooding. Oh, and there was an earthquake too!

An earthquake also hammered Turkiye and Syria. What's particularly telling, though, was the fact most of the humanitarian aid was directed to and more focused on the citizens of Turkiye rather than Syria. It lefts thousands dead and millions were displaced. Thankfully, though, it didn't much impact this blogger's trip overseas as our tour stayed primarily in the western portion of Turkiye and din't venture too far south.

From there, we saw the rise of the H5N1 avian flu, killing huge swathes of domestic and wild birds. The flu also had outbreaks in mink farms. So, although COVID-19 might be in the rearview mirror, there are plenty of new diseases ready to take its place! Like the zombie dear disease which as been spreading in Yellowstone! Essnetially, though, it's a chronic wasting disease with symptoms such as drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurological symptoms. While there are no current reported cases of this in humans, studies suggest it could pose a risk to anyone who eats meat from infected animals.

Of course, one should never forget that COVID-19 is still rampant around the world. We've all just comfortably shoved the little inconvenience to the back of our mind, even as it features as one of the core reasons for death.

Back home in Australia, permanent residency was being offered to many refugees who held temporary protection visas. There was also a resumption of assessments for asylum seeker sponsored visas where they would try to bring family members over.

Speaking of refugees (and jumping ahead a few months), there was a shipwreck off Greece carrying several hundred refugees and migrants. Most were fleeing conflicts in their countries. Of major note was the one in Sudan between the army and a paramilitary force. And when you have many countries refusing to take up migrants or helping out their fellow humans (looking at Tunisia cracking down on illegal immigrants), you end up with many a humanitarian crisis.

Further disasters abounded with a head-on crash in Greece leading to 57 being killed. China later had its own subway crash due to heavy snowfall causing carriages to detach. India, too, also had a train crash killing about 100 people.

Elsewhere, many other social media services began to emulate Elon Musk's subscription services for Twitter X, allowing users to become 'verified.' The Silicon Valley bank collapsed, followed by Credit Suisse leading to a significant downturn on Wall Street as people panicked.

In happy news, Everything Everywhere All At Once won 7 Oscars. A victory, it seemed for so many people living in Asian diasporas across the Western world. Given that many Asians were attacked during the COVID-19 pandemic simply because of their appearance, the win of Everything Everywhere All At Once proved to be a pivotal moment for many.

As the year rolled on, the International Criminal Court issued out a arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. Trump was indicted for falsifying business records. He was even later arrested. But alas, nothing has seemed to stick and Trump has used many of the court cases brought against him to target those who would stand against him in his bid for the 2024 electoral campaign.

Following the death of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II last year, King Charles III enjoyed a state coronation alongside his wife, Queen Camilla.

Other quick events: Joe Biden was forced to cancel a trip to Australia to deal with the US debt ceiling. There was the discovery of a Kenyan starvation cult. Tina Turner passed away. There was the destruction of a dam in southern Ukraine by Russian forces.

And in the news of cyber security, there was a hack of file-transfer program MoveIt, affecting many companies and governments. This was topped by a hack against Insomniac and the leaking of 1.6 TB of files showing games in development as well as the personal information of many employees.

As the northern hemisphere reached the summer, Canadia endured several severe wildfires that even affected the air quality in America. Silvio Berlusconi passed away and to cap it all off: five people were killed in an imploding submersible headed down towards the Titanic.

In other news, both domestic and international, corruption findings were noted of previous New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian. A teenage boy was shot dead in France leading to protests. Microsoft won a case against the FTC to delay a merge with Activision-Blizzard. SAF-AFRA began to strike alongside the writer's guild regarding working conditions with the move to streaming and the threat of AI supplanting jobs.

With summer peaking and then waning, heatwaves continued to devastate America, Europe and Asia. There was the passing of a controversial bill in Israel limiting the power of the Supreme Court to overturn decisions made by government ministers. In Niger, the military staged a coup.

To put our thoughts at ease, people turned on their televisions and headed to stadiums to watch the FIFA Women's World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Although Spain won, I'm happy to say Australia's own team came in fourth with a strong showing and with much love showered on our Matildas.

To keep us on our toes, however, we also saw the death of Wagner Group leader in a plane crash: Yevgeny Prigozhin. There was chaos in New York when live-streamer Kai Cenat decided to host a Give Away event. In Africa, there was another coup. This time in Gabon. And in some positive news, India was the first country to land on the Moon's south pole.

As the rest of the world headed towards winter, and Australia to summer, Mother Nature thought another earthquake would shake things up a little - killing thousands in Morocco. There was also an earthquake in Afghanistan, killing quite a number of citizens.

And just to fill out our assassination quota for the year, Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in Canada.

But in a move to surprise us all, and to raise the stakes in our very fragile ecosystem, Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, killing a few thousand and taking hundreds hostage. Israel, of course, retaliated - vowing to crush Hamas. This has since led to Israel bombing the Gaza strip, killing many hundreds of people including children and a few of their own people in a desperate bid to stamp out Hamas.

While there was a brief ceasefire and a release of hostages, the situation is still quite dire for many Palestinians. And now Iran has taken a step, declaring they would close off the Mediterranean.

In Australia, we hosted a referendum for the Voice to Parliament. Unfortunately, it was a campaign filled with a lot of disinformation and misinformation. To my dismay, the Voice to Parliament failed, setting Australia back when it comes to acknowledging Indigenous voices.

As for those clamouring for a Treaty first, while I agree with you that a Treaty would be important, a Voice would have greatly paved the way. Even if it might not have been an immediate change or be the change everyone wanted, sometimes the best way to make things better is by taking small steps. True, it might not be what one hopes for but when it comes to swaying the minds of the public on key issues, governing a nation is a delicate balancing act. TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET BUT DO NOT TRY TO HOLD THE PEOPLE/ BUDGET HOSTAGE. Public opinion IS important but relying solely on populism will get you nowhere and a country in shambles.

Australia also saw several bushfires in Queensland and norther New South Wales. We even had an Optus outage nation-wide, where many people had no internet or phone coverage. It proved, once again, the disadvantages of relying solely on technology and our phones for anything and everything.

And as we neared closer to Christmas and the New Year, Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100. In China, there were reports of another mysterious respiratory disease affecting children - with cases of pneumonia beginning to spike again. In north-east Myanmar, a temporary ceasefire was negotiated between the rebels and the military government. New Zealand also saw the rise of a new government (with Labour having been ousted in favour of the National Party). This set in motion a 100-day reform agenda seeking to unwind many of the policies designed to improve outcomes for Maori and Pasifika people, damaging race relations.

In India, after the firing of a smoke grenade in the halls of Parliament, more than half of the Opposition Members of Parliament were suspended in India. Back in America, Joe Biden pardoned thousands convicted of marijuana charges and there was also a mass shooting in Prague!

To round off the year, COP28 was held in Dubai for some inexplicable reason.

And as Santa touched down in Australia, many Australians have been struggling due to the large interest rate hikes and the increased cost of living. Rent, in particular, has proven difficult to overcome for many because of the high demand for housing. Some of it has been exacerbated by inflation but quite a bit of it has also been attributed to the changes in migration policies following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, it's not an Australian Christmas if we don't have a cyclone tearing through northern Queensland in the week or two beforehand, leading to floods and the shutdown of Cairns airport.

So ends another rotation of the Earth around the sun. 2023 has had its highs and its many various lows. Yet although it was the hottest year recorded in living history, we are still here, ticking ever closer to midnight for when we destroy the Earth as we know it.

Actually, no. The Earth will be fine in the long run (unless we somehow destroy the core or the sun explodes). It's us humans who will be wiped out from the planet, resetting civilisation as we know it. And I, for one, am eager for a reset though I doubt we will learn our lesson.

Of course, since I'm writing this post on Christmas Day (and listening to the 2023 Carols in the Domain), I can only hope there will be a light at the end of this very long tunnel we've found ourselves in. They do say it's always darkest before the dawn. Here's hoping there is a dawn for us all where collective governments can work together to make changes so we can continue thriving on this planet we call home.

[goalhofer]

2023 In Memoriam part 2

Bishop Gervasio Gestori, 86

Annette McCarthy Mangini, 64

(William) Frank Molden, 80

Owen Roizman, 86

Marcelle Faber, 99

Joseph A. Hardy III, 100

Sufia Khatun, 100

Zinaid Memišević, 72

Naomi Replansky, 104

Dorothy Tristan Hancock, 88

(Ineitha) Lynnette Hardaway, 51

Slim Newton, 90

Bishop Luis Gabriel Ramírez Díaz, 57

Bernard Kalb, 100

Ahmaad Galloway, 42

William Consovoy, 48

Melinda Dillon, 83

Zhanna Dawson, 95

Adolfo Kaminsky, 97

Cincy Powell, 80

George S. Zimbel, 93

Cardinal George Pell, 81

Jeff Beck, 78

Lothar Blumhagen, 95

Dennis Budimir, 84

Jeanne Kangas, 82

Tatjana Patitz Johnson, 56

Charles White, 64

Mildred Cook Troupe aka Carole Cook, 98

Piers Haggard, 83

[sydneysageivashkov]

tradcaths freaking out about the texan bishop being fired is so funny because george pell is proof you can literally do whatever the fuck you want as a catholic bishop or cardinal and pope francis will protect you. just don't call him an antipope.

[smartsectblog]

ABC Q&A: Professor Richard Dawkins vs Cardinal George Pell 10 April 2012.

I believe that Cardinal Pells statement regarding how women were treated in the Roman Empire is incorrect; it was contradicted in classroom discourse by NT Yale Professor Dale Martin. ..

[bibleblender]

New article has been published on https://www.bibleblender.com/2023/christian-news/mary-eberstadts-adam-and-eve-after-the-pill-revisited

Mary Eberstadt's book, Adam and Eve After the Pill poses the question: "Has the sexual revolution completely reconfigured the world?

Mary Eberstadt’s new book, featuring a foreword by the late Cardinal George Pell, addresses the revolution’s compounding effects on society, politics, and Christianity itself.

[best2daynews]

Australian Cardinal George Pell's funeral sparks protests as mourners gather

The coffin of Cardinal George Pell lays in state at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, February 1, 2023.— Reuters SYDNEY: Mourners and protesters faced off in Sydney on Thursday at the funeral service for Australian Cardinal George Pell, a former top Vatican official who was acquitted in 2020 of sexual abuse accusations. Australian police officials said they had dropped a court bid to…