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Gerard O’ConnellMarch 12, 2019
(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

An Australian judge has sentenced Cardinal George Pell to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of two choirboys in Melbourne Cathedral in the late 1990s and has decreed that the cardinal has to serve three years and eight months in prison before he can be eligible for parole.

The sentencing took place at the county court in Melbourne on March 13. It was broadcast live on national television.

Chief Judge Peter Kidd, who delivered the sentence today, was the only one seen on camera, but Cardinal Pell was in the courtroom and the judge asked him to stand for the sentencing. A person present in the courtroom, which was packed with reporters and survivors of abuse, described the cardinal as looking “tired and almost disheveled,” without a tie or collar, and wearing an open black shirt.

The total sentencing came to almost 12 years, but the penalty was reduced because of his age.

The total sentencing came to almost 12 years, but Judge Kidd reduced the penalty on four of the counts. The judge said he had given the cardinal “a shorter sentence” because of his age, “so that you can live the last part of your life in the community.”

At the same time Judge Kidd said he had to impose a sentence that was a deterrent and a punishment for what he said was “intentional offending.” He told the cardinal that “you may not live to be released from prison.” He acknowledged that his case was unique given Cardinal Pell’s career in the church and his prominent position in Australian society. He noted the widespread animosity to the cardinal, which has raised concerns for his security in prison.

One of those present in the court said the cardinal showed no reaction to his sentencing.

The judge took more than one hour to retrace the evidence on which the jury reached a unanimous verdict of guilty on each of five counts of sexual offenses by the cardinal against two 13-year-old choirboys, one of whom has since died. He described the context in which he delivered his sentence and spoke of the impact of the cardinal’s abuse on the two boys.

He said the cardinal had carried out “a brazen and forceful sexual assault on the two victims,” that included “physical aggression.” He described the assaults as “opportunistic.”

The judge said Cardinal Pell engaged in “sustained offending” with “callous indifference.” He described the offenses as “a grave breach of trust and abuse of power,” carried out with “staggering arrogance.”

Judge Kidd explained the factors that guided him in his sentencing, including the fact that the cardinal is now 77 years old, has a heart condition and a pacemaker. Cardinal Pell also has problems with his knees that required surgery, for which he had been granted bail after the Dec. 11 verdict. The judge recognized too that Cardinal Pell had lead “a blameless life” since committing these offences 22 years ago. He noted as well the character references in the cardinal’s favor.

The judge said Cardinal Pell engaged in “sustained offending” with “callous indifference.”

Judge Kidd had presided over the trial that concluded on Dec. 11, 2018 when a 12-person jury unanimously found the cardinal guilty on five counts of sexual offences against two 13-year-old choir boys inside St. Patrick’s cathedral, Melbourne, at the end of 1996 and early 1997. The maximum sentence for each of the five counts had been 10 years in prison on each count.

Cardinal Pell has repeatedly declared he is innocent of all such crimes, and his lawyers have lodged an appeal that will be heard by an Australian court in June 5-6. He will remain incarcerated as his appeal is heard.

After it was revealed two weeks ago that he had been found guilty on five counts of sexual offences against two minors, Pope Francis authorized the opening of an investigation of the Australian cardinal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body that deals with allegations of abuse and acts as a tribunal on such cases.

Cardinal Pell is the most senior member of the Catholic Church—and the first cardinal ever—to have been sentenced to serve time in prison for such crimes. Appointed bishop and made cardinal by John Paul II, he served as one of the nine cardinal advisors to Pope Francis between 2013 and 2018 and was head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019. His conviction and imprisonment for the sexual abuse of minors is a terrible blow to the Catholic Church, not only in Australia but worldwide.

He is the second cardinal-elector to receive a sentence this month. In France Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was given a six-month suspended prison sentence last week for covering-up an abuse case. He has also lodged an appeal.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Victoria’s county court told Australian media that the judge’s “sentencing remarks will be broadcast live” because the court “was committed to the principles of open justice.” Some commentators speculated that the public broadcasting was intended to counterbalance the impression that the cardinal had received privileged treatment by the court. A gag order during the trial prevented Australian and most international media from reporting the guilty verdict last December. Whatever the reason, the decision to broadcast the sentencing was seen by many as a humiliation for Cardinal Pell, and the Catholic Church which he represents.

His lawyers, led by Sydney appeals expert, Bret Walker, the cardinal’s senior counsel, have lodged a request to appeal. They will argue that the guilty verdict should be overturned on three grounds.

The first claims the verdict was “unreasonable” since it was based on the “word of one complainant alone” and contrary to the evidence of 20 witnesses who offered contrary testimony. The second is based on the fact that the judge did not allow the cardinal’s defence to use a visual aid in its closing arguments that would have shown the allegations were practically impossible. The third ground relates to a “fundamental irregularity” in the trial that stopped the cardinal from entering a not-guilty plea before the jury.

The three appeals court judges could confirm the guilty verdict, acquit Cardinal Pell or order another trial.

But even if the cardinal is acquitted, his legal problems will not end. Australian media report that one of the victims from “the swimmer’s case,” filed a civil suit against the cardinal and other parties on March 6. The complaintaint had planned to give evidence in a criminal trial before charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. This case, based on an allegation of assault in a swimming pool in Ballarat in southeast Australia’s state of Victoria, is expected to be heard in 2020, according to local media.

The Royal Commission that investigated abuse in institutions across Australia, including the Catholic Church, has yet to publish the chapter of its report that relates to Cardinal Pell. The commission had questioned the cardinal by video conference from Rome; it has withheld its findings until the judicial process against the cardinal ended to avoid prejudicing the verdict. Its report, when published, is expected to come out hard against Cardinal Pell.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Trent Shannon
5 years 8 months ago

Its far from over. Pell's handling of abuse claims in Ballarat (which amount to absolute ignorance) the ignominous hurdled mess of his Melbourne Response - designed to protect the church's "reputation" and make it difficult for survivors to seek recompense - are well known

And who knows what's in the secrets box that the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith will uncover...

sheila gray
5 years 8 months ago

What is in the “Secrets Box” is the Truth. For me, a 66 year-old woman and Survivor, the most dramatic event in Christ’s story is when Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is Truth?” And Jesus did not say a word. Why? All the evil in this life we share, in my opinion, is based on deception. Truth is one of the most important substances in our lives. Everything is based upon it. If you are so far gone that you don’t even know what it is, and you have been lifted to a place of power on Earth, something is terribly, terribly wrong. And this was 2000 years ago!!! Truth is healing. If the leaders of this Church want its traditions and good works to survive, and flourish, all they have to do is surrender to the Truth. Open the windows. Let in the air. For the last fifty years Abuse Victims were banished, cast out, pushed away, disenfranchised, etc, whenever we came forward and spoke the Truth. It’s still happening. My memories arose in my consciousness almost exactly 20 years after I was molested. Everyone talks about how the abuse has stopped because so few new allegations have come forward since 2002. Just wait till 2022 and beyond. We might all be very surprised, if we SURVIVE.

Phillip Stone
5 years 8 months ago

Sheila, I am going to assume you are a Catholic and that you regularly and faithfully practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer and examination of conscience and attendance at the sacraments particularly the Eucharist and Reconciliation. You have also let us know you are old enough to face reality.

If so, then numerous times it will have been communicated to you that truth is not a substance but a Person.
"I am the way and the truth and the life, no-one comes to the father except through me." John 14:6
And, "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" has come from your mouth every time you have prayed the Lord's Prayer.

I am also going to assume that you, like me, are guilty of mortal sin not just one time with one issue but often.
No-one can make you commit sin, not now, not ever; your freedom to choose was given to you at conception and has not been taken away.
This truth establishes that you too as well as myself are deserving of eternity in hell and not a helpless innocent.
The issues of justice apply to you and me, in just the same way as they do to clerics that committed sex sins.
Others may well be thirsting for punishment and vengeance to be visited upon us for our own mortal sins against them, that would be part of truth too.

What was the point of the incarnation, life and death of Jesus Christ? Do you really know and understand.

The epitome of goodness, the beloved holy precious Son of God freely and under no compulsion took on humanity in order to reconcile beloved sinful humanity with His Infinitely good and loving Father.
A task totally beyond any of us.

Has no-one ever opened for you the dual nature of the Incarnation.
Catholics are usually well versed in the sin and punishment aspect and it is enough to mention that Jesus took the death penalty richly deserved by you and me and died instead a sufficient death to satisfy the demands of Infinite Justice.
Less well explored is the aspect of reconciliation by actual God becoming Innocence injured.
God joined us in our vulnerability, our sensitivity, our multitudinous helplessness and was hurt in the way that we are hurt.
We look up from the dust where someone has cruelly and viciously and deliberately harmed us, look deep into the eyes of Jesus and see Him saying to us "Yes, I know what it is like, I am here in your suffering with you".
Jesus is Innocence injured just like us. We cannot say to Him "YOU don't know what it is like to ... "

I hope you have made quite sure that something that came into your mind 20 years later is a true memory of a real event; too many people are deceived by false memories evoked by incompetent or deceptive counsellors.

Avail yourself of sacrament of Annointing and not just once, it is not only for physical illness and can be received safely while surrounded or at least accompanied by others who can protect you from harm by the minister.
Then, consider getting counselling by a true Christian.
I recommend a book to start you off, it was written by two Jesuit brother trained as clinical psychologists and is titled "Healing Life's hurts through Forgiveness".

The rest of us Christians will continue to assist in the cleansing of the Church which God Himself has put in motion and will not be stopped.

You are not in a fit state to be called to jury duty, you are not impartial enough to judge fairly. You are full of anger and contempt and lust for vengeance alone.

Gregory Hamilton
5 years 8 months ago

Who the are you to talk to an abuse survivor is such an arrogant and condescending manner? Your self rightiousness is very hurtful. I am also a survivor... if you haven't been there, you can't possible understand! Your comment that her memories of abuse (which we remember every day of our lives) may be "suggested" is incredibly callous and ignorant, and shows you are not able to listen with compassion. Survivors resent being given "advice" ...many victims cannot attend any church, I have one friend who throws up when he sees a Roman Collar.
I am only going to say this once:
SHUT THE FUCK UP!

M H
5 years 8 months ago

Sheila, I'm really sorry that you have to so much as glance at loaded condemnations like that of Phillip Stone.

James Haraldson
5 years 8 months ago

And truth includes not bearing false witness.

sheila gray
5 years 8 months ago

What is in the “Secrets Box” is the Truth. For me, a 66 year-old woman and Survivor, the most dramatic event in Christ’s story is when Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is Truth?” And Jesus did not say a word. Why? All the evil in this life we share, in my opinion, is based on deception. Truth is one of the most important substances in our lives. Everything is based upon it. If you are so far gone that you don’t even know what it is, and you have been lifted to a place of power on Earth, something is terribly, terribly wrong. And this was 2000 years ago!!! Truth is healing. If the leaders of this Church want its traditions and good works to survive, and flourish, all they have to do is surrender to the Truth. Open the windows. Let in the air. For the last fifty years Abuse Victims were banished, cast out, pushed away, disenfranchised, etc, whenever we came forward and spoke the Truth. It’s still happening. My memories arose in my consciousness almost exactly 20 years after I was molested. Everyone talks about how the abuse has stopped because so few new allegations have come forward since 2002. Just wait till 2022 and beyond. We might all be very surprised, if we SURVIVE.

Michael Cardinale
5 years 8 months ago

None of this, of course, means he is guilty of the current accusation, and there may be nothing to uncover in the "secrets box". (I am unfamiliar with the term.)

Gregory Hamilton
5 years 8 months ago

If you are unsure about Pells guilt, just spend a little time looking in the internet about his past...you will find many many instances of victims telling their story...they mostly revolve around his visits to the swimming pools and locker rooms that he knew. There is a long history...

Jill Klein
5 years 8 months ago

Feel blessed that the Church is taking a stand against these abusers. It's what has driven away a lot of people I know because they couldn't support something that was against their beliefs. If they continue to drive the filth away it could really help bring people back.
Jill from Managed Technology Solutions

Phillip Stone
5 years 8 months ago

and the self-righteous jackals and the gutter press and the fat, sleazy carnal crowds cried "Crucify him!"

meanwhile, the real offenders remain shielded by their father, Satan, as the whole sordid mess unfolds ...

3 months in maximum security gaol, time to be murdered or time to make disciples of fellow inmates, the latter will be my prayer.

Lach Satsuma
5 years 8 months ago

Is there at least one righteous cardinal or bishop nominated by His Holiness Pope Francis for the holy service in the Church ?

J. Calpezzo
5 years 8 months ago

Roger Mahony

John Mack
5 years 8 months ago

What is so fundamentally wrong with the education priests received in moral reasoning/ethics and human solidarity that so many have felt free to "serve the church" while violating vulnerable lives and their own supposedly sacred vows? Was moral reasoning/ethics reduced to blind obedience and criminal loyalty to the church as an earthly kingdom/corporation? A total non-believer would be able to see how wrong these terrible acts of self-gratification were. Why not priests? Has anything really changed?

Gregory Hamilton
5 years 8 months ago

Perhaps the problem was not lack of education but immaturity and the failure to spot these sociopaths from the beginning.

Gregory Hamilton
5 years 8 months ago

Perhaps the problem was not lack of education but immaturity and the failure to spot these sociopaths from the beginning.

arthur mccaffrey
5 years 8 months ago

So........why is McCarrick still free?

Jeanne Devine
5 years 8 months ago

And why is Pell still a cardinal-elector?

Jeffrey Dalton
5 years 8 months ago

Here in Australia the overwhelming feeling amongst Christians is one of enormous tragedy coupled with relief that at least this episode has concluded. For those who have attacked the verdict, and by necessary implication the victims, we stand in eye popping disbelief that they would want to publicly reveal how tenuous their faith really is, because it is not being loyal to the Church to attack the proven accusers of a high official. In fact, it's rank disloyalty. Victims and their families have had their faith shattered, and they are the Church - not exalted administrators. An appeal may be successful but until then we have to respect the jury's verdict.

Arvind kumar
5 years 8 months ago

I am always search that the latest game in which we have lots of enjoyed while playing this game when i am know start to played this free online minesweeper games then i have firstly read that how this game should be start to played then i have played this game in systamtically way.

Colin Jory
5 years 8 months ago

It is the duty of a judge in a jury trial, whether he be Peter Kidd or Sir Thomas More, to purport to accept unreservedly a jury's guilty verdict when deciding on the punishment and making his accompanying statement. That does not mean that privately, in his intellect and conscience, the judge might not believe that the verdict is wrong and even absurd. From hearing then examining in print Magistrate Judd's sentencing statement I am quite convinced that privately he did not accept the jury's verdict and did not believe that Cardinal Pell did as alleged.

That his acceptance of the verdict was merely pro forma he hinted, for a start -- perhaps without realising he was doing so -- in his statement to the Cardinal, "By the jury's verdict, this offending occurred, and no-one walked into the priests' sacristy whilst you were offending." He adduced the "fact" that the "offending occurred" despite the sacristy door being open; despite there being much movement of people in the adjacent corridor; and despite there being a high chance that someone would have looked in or entered while Pell was in mid-assault, as evidence of extreme cunning and arrogance on Pell's part -- cunning because, he conjectured, Pell must have calculated just before he entered the sacristy, by observing the positions and movements of those in the vicinity, that he would have just enough time for a quick sexual assault of the two boys within; and arrogant because, he proposed, Pell must have calculated further that even if he was interrupted he could bluff and bully any intruder into silence by wielding his archiepiscopal authority. Kidd ended these far-fetched speculations and inferences by again implicitly blaming the jury for his having had to concoct them -- perhaps, once again, without realising he was doing so -- and for his having to purport to believe the nonsense: "These are all reasonable inferences available once it is assumed, as I must, that this offending actually occurred."

All told, I think Kidd was brilliant. He did his duty impeccably, purporting to accept the jury's verdict unreservedly -- as was his duty -- but subtly intimated (perhaps unawares) that he privately regarded the verdict and the accusations as absurd.

His full statement is at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-13/george-pells-full-sentencing,-as-issued-by-peter-kidd/10897650.

M H
5 years 8 months ago

People can hear and watch the full sentencing statement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=7BBppZNrjeY.

I certainly agree with Colin Jory that Peter Kidd "did his duty impeccably." I disagree that Kidd "subtly intimated (perhaps unawares) that he privately regarded the verdict and the accusations as absurd."

There's no reason to take Kidd's conclusions at anything other than face value. The audio shows that Kidd spoke from personal conviction that was anything but subtle. When he qualified his conclusions by, for instance, calling Cardinal Pell "staggeringly arrogant," he was stating his own finding. If he felt otherwise, he could have said otherwise.

The judge addressed the defense's objections one by one and explained his reasoning based on his interpretation of the evidence, measured against definitions in law such as the scope of duty of care or the criteria for being out of control of one's actions. If he thought that the evidence or the legal standards weighed in favor of the defense, he could have said so and granted the objection.

We can each decide for ourselves whether or not Kidd's inferences were "far-fetched," but the judge gave zero intimation that he personally found the verdict absurd.

Robert Lewis
5 years 8 months ago

We will see what happens in the appeal, but I personally think Pell will win it, despite his arrogance, and despite the fact that he is plainly guilty of concealing other clerics' offenses. The circumstantial evidence against him is plainly dubious, and supplied by individuals who have previously prevaricated. (One prevaricator against another, obviously.) Conviction has to be beyond the shadow of a doubt, and the jury was understandably swayed by the victims' pain, which is understandable.
Pell's reputation is destroyed, and the evidence against his crimes will probably be more objectively scrutinized in Rome. However, there should be no backlash against the Australian judicial system when this conviction is overturned.

Robert Lewis
5 years 8 months ago

Oh, and I should add that I DO think he assaulted the two boys, but not sexually--just beat them; considering the layout of the cathedral and sacristy, he'd have to have been insane to attempt a sexual abuse in that venue--which Pell plainly is not. They did not allow the layout of that building to be shown to the jury, but the appeals court will see it.

M H
5 years 8 months ago

Regarding the strength of the evidence, we don’t have the transcript of the trial, so we can’t assess either the strengths of the prosecution case or the weaknesses of the defense case. What we do know is that the victim spent more than two days on the stand, including cross-examination by the defense that presumably gave no quarter. If a witness sustains all that without wavering, it goes to their credibility. Perhaps that’s what happened here.

One of the grounds of the appeal is that the evidence patently doesn’t support the conviction. So we’ll find out the view of the appeals court on exactly this point.

Gregory Hamilton
5 years 8 months ago

If you have doubt about Pell's guilt, just spend some time looking on the net. If you search for other accusations you will find a whole history...they revolve around his visits to the community swimming pool and locker rooms where he took him boys. I have absolutely no doubt that these two instances were only the tip of iceberg...and indeed we are going to see more...

Colin Jory
5 years 8 months ago

You seem to have a formula, Greg, whereby a certain number of lies and delusions delineate a truth, the way paint sprayed on a stencil delineates the stencil's shape. I suggest you look more closely at the timeline of the hate-Pell campaign. George Pell has been detested by the Left both within the Australian Church and without from prettywell the moment of his ordination, because he is not only an orthodox Catholic who believes in Christian cultural and social values, but he has been a fearless, very intelligent (D.Phil Oxford), well informed, and persuasive champion of such.

When he became Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 he immediately set up a tribunal, the "Melbourne Response", under a qualified lay president, to receive and investigate complaints of clerical sexual abuse, and grant compensation when a complaint seemed true. By then the Left-secularist hate-jihad against the Catholic bishops in general was well under way, yet the already-hated Pell only received personal attention from the jihadists when it was noted that when a young priest in Ballarat he had been assistant priest for a time to the prolific paedophile Fr Gerard Ridsdale, sharing a presbytery with him. It was agreed among themselves by all haters and bigots that Pell "must have known" of Ridsdale's predations, and the clam was trumpeted everywhnere, until an inconvenient revelation caused the entire edifice of malice to collapse. A very well-known TV journalist with impeccable Leftist and PC credentials, Paul Bongiorno, told publicly that when young he too had been a priest of the Ballarat diocese; he too had been an assistant priest to Ridsdale for a time, sharing his presbytery; but that he had never had the remotest suspicion of Ridsdale's predations.

The first claim by anyone to having been sexually molested by Pell came in 2002, when a Phil Scott, who had a criminal record including for drug offenses, alleged that in 1961 Pell, when a seminarian, molested him at a youth camp. A Church-established tribunal headed by a retired Victorian Supreme Court justice found that there was no corroboration for the accuser's story, and that both he and Pell seemed to be telling what was true in their minds. In 2013 the Victorian Police, for political reasons and without having received any accusations against Pell, nonetheless set up a task force, "Operation Tethering", to fish for allegations against him, including by newspaper advertisements. Even so, it was not until 2015-16 that several "recovered memories" materialised, with one seemingly inspiring the next. Two long-term friends, Lyndon Monument and Damian Dignan, one of whom admitted to being a drug addict and the other to being an alcoholic, and both of whom have criminal records, alleged that Pell had molested them underwater at Ballarat's Eureka Stockade swimming pool when they were young, and were part of class groups -- no other members of which have claimed to have experienced or heard of any molestation by Pell. Next was a claim that during a showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind at a Ballarat movie theatre Pell raped the claimant -- but it transpired that when this was supposed to have happened that movie was not being screened at the theatre. And, of course, there was the claim, which the jury at the second Pell trial pretended to believe, that immediately after Mass in late 1996, the claimant and a friend, when choir-boys, had been sexually assaulted in the priests' sacristy of St Patrick's Cathedral, with the door open, at a time when the presbytery and the adjoining corridor would have been busy places, by a fully-robed Pell who had somehow slipped away unnoticed from the priests who were always with him as his liturgical assistants. The second alleged victim had died of a heroin overdose in 2014 after always having denied to his parents that he had ever been molested by any priest. This farrago of delusion and fakery is what you claim, Greg, collectively identifies George Pell, the object of a twenty-year unrelenting jihad of hate by the in-church and extra-Church Left, as a paedophile. You need to get a grip on reality.

Randal Agostini
5 years 8 months ago

There is no doubt that the Church has brought this upon itself, but we also are witness to the effects of mob rule by the public. It is almost as though people are oblivious to the fact that there are cases of innocence, that the Church is viewed as an obstacle. Truth exists, but it is often difficult to find, especially when we are not prepared to entertain it.

Robert John Zagar
5 years 7 months ago

I read your piece on the prosecutors putting the predators in jail. In Chicago we trusted our prosecutors and we live with Father MacCormack's 5 victims at St. Agatha. That's not the answer since the states attorney, district attorney, CPD and Archdiocese all messed up on this case. I have been researching predicting and preventing violence. Most writers and most of my peers are not current and don't use machine learning internet based computerized tests.
If they would the world would be safer, i.e., less homicides, overdoses, sex offenses and suicides. The common conventional way is to use a background credit check, judgment interview, medical exam and paper test with a combined 39% accuracy vs 97% with machine learning internet based tests.
I shared my research along with 5000 pages of material with Pope Francis and the group organizing the Vatican Conference and there is hope because they are moving in the right direction, psychological testing. See the article in Friday's Washington Post (don't believe the writer or the professionals because they embarrassed their families, and their alma maters by not keeping up with the current research):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/03/20/catholic-church-tries-psychology-prevent-bad-priests-difficult-scientific-endeavor/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dcf3224c2058
I've been patient with Chicago Cardinals Bernadin, George and now Cupich. One percent of all professionals commit sex offenses regardless of race ethnicity gender age or occupation.
So it's not just the Roman Catholic Church its university athletic departments and its your local school district and college too.
The prosecutors put the Penn State president and athletic director in jail and they have not changed their policy to use machine learning internet psychological tests to screen either their coaches or their athletes. Leadership, education and change will occur slowly but surely as institutions lose hundreds of millions and more leaders are jailed.
The solution is machine learning internet tests because there are 40,300,000 ways a person can deceptively self present a neurological psychiatric disorder (sex offending is one illness). So machine learning internet tests can find the "7 point violence profile" demonstrated in 212 studies over 95 years with 320,000+ persons. We can save the Church from upcoming bankruptcy in the next century by testing all the employees and making the personnel records transparent and then informing the churchgoers we have cleaned the Church as best we can using science not the "pseudoscience" we've employed in the past. Best wishes with hope for a brighter future. Robert Zagar PhD MPH, Chicago, Illinois.

Robert John Zagar
5 years 7 months ago

I read your piece on the prosecutors putting the predators in jail. In Chicago we trusted our prosecutors and we live with Father MacCormack's 5 victims at St. Agatha. That's not the answer since the states attorney, district attorney, CPD and Archdiocese all messed up on this case. I have been researching predicting and preventing violence. Most writers and most of my peers are not current and don't use machine learning internet based computerized tests.
If they would the world would be safer, i.e., less homicides, overdoses, sex offenses and suicides. The common conventional way is to use a background credit check, judgment interview, medical exam and paper test with a combined 39% accuracy vs 97% with machine learning internet based tests.
I shared my research along with 5000 pages of material with Pope Francis and the group organizing the Vatican Conference and there is hope because they are moving in the right direction, psychological testing. See the article in Friday's Washington Post (don't believe the writer or the professionals because they embarrassed their families, and their alma maters by not keeping up with the current research):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/03/20/catholic-church-tries-psychology-prevent-bad-priests-difficult-scientific-endeavor/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dcf3224c2058
I've been patient with Chicago Cardinals Bernadin, George and now Cupich. One percent of all professionals commit sex offenses regardless of race ethnicity gender age or occupation.
So it's not just the Roman Catholic Church its university athletic departments and its your local school district and college too.
The prosecutors put the Penn State president and athletic director in jail and they have not changed their policy to use machine learning internet psychological tests to screen either their coaches or their athletes. Leadership, education and change will occur slowly but surely as institutions lose hundreds of millions and more leaders are jailed.
The solution is machine learning internet tests because there are 40,300,000 ways a person can deceptively self present a neurological psychiatric disorder (sex offending is one illness). So machine learning internet tests can find the "7 point violence profile" demonstrated in 212 studies over 95 years with 320,000+ persons. We can save the Church from upcoming bankruptcy in the next century by testing all the employees and making the personnel records transparent and then informing the churchgoers we have cleaned the Church as best we can using science not the "pseudoscience" we've employed in the past. Best wishes with hope for a brighter future. Robert Zagar PhD MPH, Chicago, Illinois.

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