TIM MINCHIN v GEORGE PELL
TIM MINCHIN
V
GEORGE PELL
Child Abuse Within
the Catholic Church
And the winner is…
Here’s a story.
Once upon a time a young altar boy
of 8, let’s just say in the early 1960s,
is molested by a priest.
Traumatised, he goes home and
tells his parents.
It takes courage.
They yell at him and belt him
for lying.
He tells the truth and he gets
punished.
Punished by the ones he loves.
To whom does that kid now turn?
Three of the most important people
in his life, his parents and his priest,
the ones expected to keep him safe
and give him guidance, have let him
down in the worst possible way.
And, when exposed, the Church
tries to cover it up.
Well, not literally the Church, but
people of power within the Church.
Flesh-and-blood people.
Sinners.
Their first thought is to protect
the Church.
Protect the Church and God from,
wait for it, the TRUTH.
Don’t worry about the child or the
thousands like him whose lives have
been irreparably damaged.
Forget about the children who will be
abused in the future.
“We will fix this ourselves.
No one can ever know.”
“We’ll move him to another town and
tell him not to do it again.”
And then, when whispers of the truth
started ripples of outrage, came this.
“We’ll splash a bit of money about
to keep them quiet.”
Please explain to me the existence
of Christianity within that scenario.
This is what Tim Minchin is asking
in his song.
Have a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtHOmforqxk
Do ya get it now?!
This is why Tim Minchin wants
Cardinal George Pell to come home.
He wants George Pell to look into
the eyes of some of the victims and
then explain to them “why”.
Why he didn’t protect the children of
the God he represents.
Why the Church’s reputation was a
greater priority.
Why he can’t shed buckets of tears,
break down and beg forgiveness?
Back to the story.
Now it’s hard to blame the parents
for not believing the child – the child
who has just told them he has been
molested by his priest – as they too
have been indoctrinated in the ways
of their particular religion.
And, in their minds, at that time,
there is no way a priest would
ever do that.
The kid must be lying.
Therefore he must be punished.
Spare the rod, spoil the child.
And now try to imagine the
heartache and pain of those parents
when, many years down the track,
they discover their little boy was
telling the truth.
The truth being a representative of
their Church, of their God, violated
their little boy.
And when their little boy came to
them for help, they didn’t
believe him.
They punished him.
Soul-destroying.
But they can be forgiven.
The Church has no excuse.
The Church knew.
It would appear George Pell has
known for a long, long time.
And when asked to return to
Australia from The Vatican to front a
Royal Commission into Child Abuse,
George Pell gets a note from his
doctor saying he is too sick to take
the flight.
George Pell will now give his
evidence via video link.
So Tim Minchin wrote a song
imploring Cardinal Pell to make
the journey.
Independent of the song there has
been a crowd-funding initiative to
raise money to fly some of the
victims to The Vatican to witness
Cardinal Pell’s deposition.
Feel free to get involved.
https://www.gofundme.com/sendballarat...
All royalties from the song will now
go to that initiative.
There has been a lot of spit and
kafooey that a mere entertainer
could have the audacity to call
Australia’s highest ranking Catholic
official a “pompous buffoon”
and “scum”.
But this is not a “mere entertainer”
jumping on a bandwagon to
increase his own popularity and
cash in on the controversy.
This is a world-renowned lyricist,
satirist and performer who wrote
the score for the hugely successful
musical Roald Dahl's Matilda.
And Tim Minchin has addressed
paedophilia and several
religion-related issues via a couple
of other songs in the past.
The Pope Song and
Thank You God for example.
WARNING.
There is language in these songs
that many people may consider
to be “from the gutter”.
But like “scum” and “pompous
buffoon”, they’re only words.
And for a whole lot of people the
words are warranted.
Let’s not shoot the messenger here.
How about we clear a bit of the
forest and have a close look at
the trees.
Paedophilia is a criminal offence.
An abhorrent criminal offence.
It now carries a maximum sentence
of life in prison in NSW.
But the Church, fully aware of many
of these offences, chose to deal
with them in-house.
Shuffle the deck.
Move the offenders.
Don’t mention the war.
Don’t tell the cops.
And, from all reports, the bloke who
orchestrated a fair bit of the
shuffling, kept it on the QT and
failed to inform the Boys In Blue
was George Pell.
The buck-stopper.
The Accountability Man now
conveniently stuck in a No Fly Zone
courtesy of apparent ill-health.
Has he not committed a criminal
offence?
Has he not aided and abetted
the paedophiles?
Paedophiles who in the real world
would be, and now are, sent to jail.
Should he not be punished for being
complicit in these crimes?
Is he not accountable?
Don’t the victims deserve the right to
ask him “Why?”.
That, in hokey-pokey terms,
is what the song is all about.
What’s your view?