Vatican City - Pope Francis, speaking
just a few hours after Australia's highest court acquitted
Cardinal George Pell of sexual abuse, on Tuesday offered his
morning Mass for those who suffer today from unjust sentences.
The court quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted
the two choir boys in the 1990s and allowed the 78-year-old
former Vatican economy minister to walk free from jail, ending
the most high profile case of alleged historical sex abuse to
rock the Roman Catholic Church.
Each morning at the Mass in his residence, Francis chooses
an intention for the service, such as remembering the poor, the
homeless or the sick.
"I would like to pray today for all those people who suffer
unjust sentences resulting from intransigence (against them),"
Francis said, speaking before the start of the Mass. Francis did
not mention Pell by name.
In recent weeks, the pope's intentions for nearly all of his
daily Masses have been related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Francis compared the suffering of those inflicted with
unjust sentences today to the way Jewish community elders
persecuted Jesus with "obstinacy and rage even though he was
innocent."
The Vatican had no immediate comment on the verdict on Pell,
which comes in the middle of Holy Week, the period leading up to
Easter, the most important day in the Christian calendar.
Francis, who appointed Pell to overhaul the Vatican's vast
finances in 2014, has said he would comment only after all
avenues of appeal had been exhausted.
At 78, three years past the age at which bishops and Vatican
officials normally hand in their resignation, Pell is not
expected to return to a Holy See job.
Pell had been on a leave of absence from the post, whose
formal title is Prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy,
since 2017. Last year, the pope named a successor, Spanish
Jesuit priest Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves.
An official Vatican comment was expected later on Tuesday
and it was not clear if the pope would make a specific personal
statement.
In its report on the decision, the official Vatican News
website recalled that Pell had always maintained his innocence
and his right to defend himself until all levels of justice were
exhausted.