The Catholic Weekly 5 July 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 16 NEWS 5, July, 2020 WORLD Journal ‘will be classic’ 70 years on, Koreans commemorate war Cardinal Pell’s prison memoirs to appear in several volumes CATHOLICS PRAYED for last- ing peace on the divided Kore- an Peninsula on 25 June, mark- ing the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the KoreanWar. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Ucanews.com reported the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea said 16 dioceses in South Korea held Masses in succession on the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 conflict. Churches followed strict safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by taking IGNATIUS PRESS will publish Cardinal George Pell’s prison journal and it is also appeal- ing for donations it will give the cardinal for outstanding legal expenses incurred in defend- ing himself against allegations of the sexual abuse of minors. Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, editor of the US-based Ignatius Press, said, “I’ve already read the first half of the journal and it is extraordinary. I think it’s going to be a spiritual classic.” The complete journal, he said, is about 1,000 pages, “so we will print it in three or four volumes” with the first volume expected to be published in 2021. “With your help, we can proceed with this project and offer Cardinal Pell appropriate advances on these volumes, which he can then use to re- move much of the worry he now has about his legal debts,” the priest said in a message published in June on the Igna- tius Press website. The “Cardinal George Pell Donation Project,” found on Ignatius.com, said donations made through the publisher’s website or its parent compa- ny, Guadalupe Associates Inc., were tax deductible. A jury inAustralia had found Cardinal Pell guilty in De- cember 2018 on five counts of abuse and the Victoria Court of Appeal upheld that verdict in a 2-1 decision. The 79-year-old cardinal had served nearly 14 months out of a six-year sentence when, in April, the Full Bench – seven judges – of the High Court dismissed his convic- tion on charges of abusing two choirboys in 1996. The judgement was de- scribed by legal experts as a remarkable rebuke to both the original conviction and sub- sequent appeal decision. He was in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 405 days. Cardinal Pell’s trial and ap- peal are estimated by lawyers to have cost millions of dollars, but he said in an interviewwith Sky News Australia in mid- April that the church did not pay for it. He said it was paid for by “a lot of very generous people,” some of whom were wealthy, and he dipped into his own retirement savings. Father Fessiowrote that now the cardinal was “out of jail and back in action,” he still had “the ongoing challenge of meeting the many legal expenses which ¾ ¾ Carol Glatz Doves are released during a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the KoreanWar. PHOTO: CNS/KIM HONG-JI, REUTERS temperatures and providing hand sanitisers and distanced seating, Yonhap news agency reported. Mass at Myeongdong Ca- thedral in Seoul was attended by 230 Catholics. “I wanted to state that al- though achieving true peace that we all want is a very diffi- cult thing, it is absolutely not impossible,” Cardinal Andrew YeomSoo-jung said. His comments came amid increased border tensions af- ter North Korea recently called South Korea an “enemy” and cut off all cross-border com- munication lines. In mid- were necessary to right the ter- rible injustice done to him.” “One way of doing this is to publish his story,” the priest said, describing the cardinal as “a goodman, and a good friend personally of mine and of Ig- natius Press,” which has pub- lished books by the cardinal in the past. The cardinal led the Archdi- ocese of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001 and the Archdiocese of Sydney from 2001 to 2014, when Pope Francis called him to head the Vatican’s new- ly formed Secretariat for the Economy. In mid-2017, the cardinal took leave from his position to return to Australia to face the abuse charges; his term as head of the secretariat expired in 2019. Father Fessio wrote that the High Court’s recent deci- sion revealed “just how far the church’s enemies will go and how deceitful they will be to discredit her.” “Now that we’ve won, let’s help Ignatius share the story and let us helpCardinal Pell get out from under this remaining burden,” he wrote. Cardinal Pell, who has re- peatedly maintained his inno- cence said he holds no ill will toward his accuser, and said, after his April release from prison, that his trial “was not a referendum on the Catholic Church; nor a referendum on how church authorities in Aus- tralia dealt with the crime of pedophilia in the church.” “This point was whether I had committed these awful crimes, I did not.” The Vatican welcomed the High Court’s unanimous de- cision in April, recognising the cardinal had “waited for the truth to be ascertained,” and it reaffirmed “its commitment to preventing and pursuing all cases of abuse against minors.” - CNS With your help, we can proceed with this pro- ject and offer Cardinal Pell appropriate advances on these volumes, which he can then use to remove much of the worry he now has about his legal debts.” Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio Some people always will want to destroy unity and stifle prophets, Pope Francis said on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul. And yet, Jesus challenges everyone to be – like Peter – a rock for building a re- newed church and renewed humanity, and – like Paul – a missionary who brings the Gospel to others, he said during a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on 29 June. People also need to complain less and pray more, especially for those who govern, the pope said.The feast day celebration in St Peter’s Basilica was markedly different from oth- er years because of ongoing restrictions in place to stem the spread of COVID-19. Normally archbishops appointed over the course of the previous year would have been invited to concelebrate the feast day Mass with the pope and watch as he blessed their palliums, woollen bands worn around their shoulders.This year, however, the pandemic prevented the gathering. Palliums will be consigned to prelates around the world. - CNS Francis carries on for special feast celebration Pope Francis kisses the feet of a statue of St Peter, dressed specially for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA June, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office opened after a 2018 summit between the two Koreas. “When the politics of for- giveness is spread, justice becomes more humane and peacemore everlasting,” Cardi- nal Yeom said. He prayed for all political leaders to “overcome personal, partisan andnational interests” and strive for universal com- mon peace. - CNS