I don't Pellieve it

I can't imagine hat a great number of lay Catholics in Australia retain much respect or affection for Cardinal George Pell, and the spectacle of him wriggling and squirming and blaming everyone but himself at the Enquiry into Sex Abuse in Sydney seems unlikely to have restored him to general esteem. There may somewhere in the world be a Cardinal who has done more to damage the reputation of the Church among his local flock, but it is difficult at the moment to put a finger on him (for once one needn't add 'or her'). The surprising, even perhaps appalling thing is that the Vatican has placed him almost second to the Pope in its hierarchy; while he is undoubtedly clever with money - clever, one might say almost to a fault in having persuaded the Church to support him in spending millions on luxurious apartments in Rome while denying it to the victims of abuse in Australia, it's surely not clever of the Vatican to confirm his promotion at a time when were he in a senior position in any respectable or well-run firm he would by now either have been sent abroad as local manager of a small store in Northern Canada, or asked for his resignation. I must say that if I were inclined to join the Catholic church, it's not a club is very attractive which at the moment.