First meeting after abuse trial

adminonNovember 22, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Pope Francis and George Pell © Vatican Media/Romano Siciliani (KNA)

Australian Curia Cardinal George Pell has been received by Pope Francis for a private meeting this Monday. Pell had returned to Rome for the first time in three years in late September.

The head of the church has thanked the Vatican's former "economic minister" for his work, the official website "Vatican News" stressed. The 79-year-old had returned to Rome in recent days after being acquitted in April.

Pell was the highest-ranking church official in his home country to date, accused of sexual abuse, convicted and subsequently acquitted at the highest instance. The audience with Francis was the first meeting since the trial began in July 2017. He is considered a key witness in an investment affair involving the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Return to Rome

Pell had been granted an audience with Francis on 30. September returned to his Roman home from Australia for the first time in three years. Pell did not disclose the reason for his trip. Last week, he was seen around the Vatican, where many curia offices are based, despite a 14-day quarantine requirement in place in Italy.

Pell's return to Rome is seen as a rehabilitation in Rome. As prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, his demand for disclosure of the finances of individual Vatican agencies had also met with resistance within the Secretariat of State. After Pell's retirement from Rome, investigations by Vatican justice got underway into dubious financial transactions that allegedly led to the purchase of a luxury property in London at an inflated price.

Power struggle with Cardinal Becciu?

Pell's mandate as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy ended in February 2019. According to the Papal Yearbook, he no longer holds any other offices in the Curia. The Vatican wanted to make possible internal church criminal proceedings over the abuse allegations contingent on the outcome of the trial before the Australian judiciary.

Observers ame that investigations by the competent curia authority have been discontinued in the meantime. Italian media speculate that a power struggle with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a former top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State, also played a role in Pell's indictment in Australia.

The pope recently accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu as president of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Angelo Becciu had at the same time renounced the rights associated with the title of cardinal. Until his move to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and appointment as cardinal in 2018, Becciu was in charge of financial affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Circumcision instruments: a knife and a foreskin guard © dpa

Representatives of faith communities have called for respect for religious rituals in Europe. The reason is a possible circumcision ban in Iceland. The bill is "a dangerous attack on religious freedom," Cardinal Marx said.

The secretary general of the EU bishops' commission COMECE, Olivier Poquillon, also stressed that the planned circumcision ban in Iceland was a "danger" to fundamental rights. Cardinal Reinhard Marx had already criticized the planned ban on circumcision in February.

Circumcision is an "important element" of Judaism, the director of the European Jewish Community Center (EJCC), Avi Tawil, stressed in the EU Parliament on Tuesday. Its prohibition would be tantamount to a ban on Jewish tradition.

The co-chairman of the Christian Democrats' working group in the EU Parliament on intercultural activities and religious dialogue, Jan Olbrycht, stressed that the freedom to have one's own rituals is part of religions.

Violation faces prison sentence

Icelandic MPs from five different parties had presented a draft law banning the circumcision of boys earlier this year. It provides for a prison sentence of up to six years for anyone who causes physical harm or other health impairment to a child through "the removal of sexual organs in whole or in part".

Parliament has yet to pass the bill. Iceland would be first country in Europe to ban circumcision of boys if bill passes.

In Germany, boy circumcision is permitted for Jews and Muslims for religious reasons.

Egypt is in upheaval: Between the Arab Spring and new elections in September, the North African country is currently in a transitional phase. For 30 years Mubarak ruled the country as a dictator. Now democracy presents government and citizens with new challenges.

Especially important are the children, they are the first to grow up in a democratic Egypt, says Doctor Maged Yanny. He heads the Association of Upper Egypt for Education and Development. "We are preparing the children to be the future of Egypt," Yanny told our site interview.

Currently, Yanny is visiting the friends and supporters of the Catholic Association in Germany, which includes the Archdiocese of Cologne. The 35 elementary school run by the Association in Egypt have long taken the approach of preparing children for their role as political citizens. "We believe that we can play an important role in the education of children – through extra-curricular events, through the Parents' Council, through the Students' Council, where children elect their representatives," Yanny explained.

Equal opportunities for all
The student council actually has a say, for example, when it comes to afternoon clubs or the purchase of new computers at school. Recently, teachers have also started to receive training on democratic values and civil rights. The system is having an effect, reports Yanny. Not only do the students do very well in national competitions, but in some schools the children are also asking for their rights; they are interested in democratic systems at school.

The special thing about the Association's elementary schools is that girls and boys are taught together, many of them from very poor backgrounds. Almost half of the 11.000 students are girls. Their promotion is particularly close to Yanny's heart, because, as he told our site tells. In order to further promote equal opportunities between the sexes, the Association also offers projects for women in the communities.

Equal opportunities for all is also one of the aspects that Doctor Yanny hopes for after the elections in September. That the new parliament "represents all Egyptians" and adopts a constitution that says "we believe in civil rights, equal rights for all, and freedom of religion and belief" are Yanny's wishes for the new Egypt.

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