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Pope Francis Defends Top Vatican Official Cardinal George Pell Who Is Accused Of Child Sex Crimes

Charges of sexual offenses against Cardinal George Pell have placed new pressure on Pope Francis to make good on pledges to root out abuses in the church.

Published

9 years ago

June 30, 2017

Geoffrey Grider

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Charges of sexual offenses against one of the Vatican’s top-ranking prelates have placed new pressure on Pope Francis to make good on pledges to root out, punish and prevent abuses that have shaken the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Pope Francis has vowed to hold all Catholic priests responsible who have sexually abused children in thier various parishes around the world. Now comes the shocking news that a top Vatican cardinal, George Pell, has been charged with pedophilia. Pell is also the Pope’s senior advisor and confidant. Will Francis do the right thing, or will he continue to cover for pedophile priests while promising reform? To date, over 4,400 Catholic priests have been charged with pedophilia.

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:” Revelation 17:4 (KJB)

Cardinal George Pell, the most senior church official to be implicated in a far-flung scandal of decades’ standing, said Thursday that he would return to his native Australia to face the charges against him. He dismissed the charges as “relentless character assassination.”

The cardinal, who is a senior advisor to Francis, told reporters in Vatican City that the pontiff had granted him a leave of absence to contest the charges, which bring the globe-spanning abuse allegations directly to the gates of the Vatican.

Although cases of priest-committed pedophilia and their wrenchingly long-lasting repercussions remain an open wound in dozens of dioceses across the United States and other countries, it is rare for direct allegations of abuse to reach the level of a cardinal, each of whom is known as a “prince of the church.”

Hear Cardinal George Pell’s response to child sex assault charges:

Australian authorities described the charges against Pell as centering on sex offenses committed decades ago in Australia — “historical” crimes, in police language. Pell had already come under withering scrutiny in his homeland for allegedly helping to cover up sexual predation by others while he held senior church positions in Australia.

From his humble beginnings as a parish priest, Pell, 76, rose to become the Vatican’s powerful finance czar, tasked by Francis with untangling the convoluted accounting practices of the church’s worldwide empire. The cardinal’s sidelining could significantly hamper that ambitious reform effort, which has drawn significant hostility from elements of the Vatican bureaucracy.

The abuse scandal, which has colored successive papacies, is a far more visible public battle.

Cardinal George Pell charged with historical sex abuse offences:

Pope Francis has pledged “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse within the clerical ranks and has offered personal apologies to victims for past sexual predation and the church’s attempts to diminish and deny it. Yet he has also come under criticism for alleged foot-dragging and failure to forcefully confront institutional resistance to transparency and accountability.

“Clearly, this case is going to turn up the heat on this pope’s record on examination of sexual abuse,” said John Allen, the editor of Crux, an independent website covering the Vatican and the church. But he predicted that Pell, who in his youth excelled at the rough-and-tumble sport of Australian rules football, would aggressively fight the charges.

The cardinal, who did not take questions during his Vatican City appearance, has been ordered to appear before a court in Melbourne on July 18. “I am looking forward finally to having my day in court,” Pell told reporters. “I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false.… The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”

The charges originated in the Australian state of Victoria, where police said, without providing details, that there were multiple charges from multiple complainants lodged against Pell.

For many victims in the U.S. and elsewhere, the cardinal’s case revives painful memories of being disbelieved and dismissed after suffering abuses in childhood at the hands of priests who were respected, even beloved, in their communities.

In one of the most notorious U.S. cases, in the Archdiocese of Boston, abuse and cover-ups involving hundreds of clergy and thousands of victims, many dating back decades, were documented in a 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning series by the Boston Globe and the 2015 movie “Spotlight.” But new accusations, of abuse and systematic attempts to conceal it, continue to surface.

During his visit to the United States in 2015, Francis disappointed and surprised many victims and advocates when he appeared to praise American bishops for their handling of abuse cases. Although the pope has since expressed sympathy for those who suffered abuse, Vatican follow-up has been inadequate, said Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer and priest who has worked with victims of pedophile priests in the U.S. for more than three decades.

Pope Francis vows to hold clergy accountable for child sex abuse:

Pope Francis vowed to end the long history of Catholic priests sexually abusing young children, most of them boys. Will he keep his promise or sweep it under the rug like all the others?

“Hopefully, this will get the pope’s attention, not only about Pell but about the problem in general,” he said. “The pope has done nothing so far. There’s a lot of disappointment among victims.”

With the Pell case throwing into sharp relief a long-standing sense of alienation and anger, the case could have grave ramifications for Francis’ papacy, some Vatican watchers said.

“It poses an enormous credibility challenge,” said Cristina Traina, a religion professor at Northwestern University. “It needs to be taken quite seriously. Statements of regret and distress and promises to do better in the future at this point are inadequate.”

Critics point to an enormous backlog of sexual abuse cases that have gone unacted upon. In 2014, Francis created a commission including two abuse victims to advise on the weeding out of predator priests, but the two victims — Peter Saunders and Marie Collins — left the commission amid frustrations over its inaction.

Collins said in an online post that though she was reserving judgment on whether Pell was guilty of committing abuse, he should have been made to answer to allegations he took part in cover-ups and should never have attained the prominent post he was given by Francis.

Pope Benedict resigned as child sex abuse allegations swirled around him:

“He should never have been allowed to hide out in the Vatican to avoid having to face those in his home country who needed answers,” Collins wrote on her website. The case will take time to wend its way through Australian courts, and the outcome could ultimately color Francis’ overall legacy, some observers said.

“His very image as a bold reformer hangs in the balance here, depending on what measures he takes in the aftermath of the Pell case,” said Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Sex abuse cases are the Achilles’ heel of his papacy.”

Previously, Pell said he was ill and declined to return to Australia to testify in a government inquiry, answering questions instead in February 2016 by video link from a Rome hotel.

The cardinal has acknowledged “catastrophic” errors on the church’s part in its handling of abuse complaints, but denied any personal wrongdoing.

So far, the Vatican has been largely supportive of Pell. Last year, when police confirmed that the cardinal was under investigation for sex offenses, Francis said it was important not to rush to judgment.

“It’s in the hands of the justice system, and one cannot judge before the justice system,” the pontiff said then. “After the justice system speaks, I will speak.”

Some Vatican watchers, however, pointed to a degree of papal distancing from Pell. A Vatican spokesman said Thursday that effective immediately the cardinal would not be taking place in liturgical celebrations.

The Vatican, which is a sovereign city-state in the middle of Rome, has sometimes sheltered church officials from criminal allegations.

Under previous popes, it sheltered officials wanted by other countries. That included even Italy, which was rebuffed when it sought the handover of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the then-head of the Vatican bank who was wanted for questioning about the fraudulent bankruptcy of a private Italian bank.

But Francis took a tougher line toward Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop who was accused of paying shoeshine boys for sex while serving as papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic. He was recalled and defrocked but was found dead of natural causes in 2015 in his Vatican quarters before he could face a judge. source

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European Union

As Spain Watches While An All-Male Horde Of Foreign Muslim Invaders Violates Its Sovereign Borders, The World Lurches Forward Toward All-Out Global War

Published

1 day ago

July 31, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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The Invasion Of Spain By Muslim Migrants Reveals How Quickly National Sovereignty Can Collapse As The Entire World Moves Toward Permanent Emergency Government

Look around you, the world is not merely experiencing a collection of unrelated crises, it is literally convulsing. The war with Iran is spreading across the Middle East, threatening the Strait of Hormuz, striking American interests and pulling nations like Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and China closer to the battlefield. In Europe, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is pressing against the borders of NATO, with missiles falling dangerously close to the tripwire that could ignite direct conflict between Russia and the West. Now Spain has watched its sovereign border buckle beneath a reported human wave of tens of thousands of Muslims pouring into Ceuta, followed by another coordinated assault against Melilla. The Middle East is burning, Eastern Europe is exploding, and Western Europe is discovering that an invasion does not always arrive behind tanks—it can come through an abandoned border while a paralyzed government stands helplessly watching.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:6–8 (KJB)

Jesus Christ warned that the closing days would be characterized by “wars and rumours of wars,” with nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. That is precisely the atmosphere now gathering over this sin-cursed world. These wars are no longer contained within neat geographical boundaries. Iran strikes across the Middle East, Russia threatens the security architecture of Europe, China arms Tehran while watching Taiwan, and great movements of desperate people are being weaponized against weakened Western nations. Every border is becoming a pressure point, every military alliance a potential tripwire, and every regional conflict a possible doorway into something much larger. The world constructed after the Second World War is coming apart before our eyes, and the demons of nationalism, religious hatred, conquest and empire are coming roaring back from the grave.

Matthew 24 is doctrinally aimed at the Jewish people during the time of Jacob’s trouble, but the shadow of that coming period is already stretching across the nations. In fact, it is our position that verses 3-8 can, and do, refer to the end of ther Church Age time period. We are not yet standing in the Great Tribulation, and will be raptured out before it starts, but we are watching the scaffolding being erected for it. The military alliances are forming, the ancient enemies are awakening, national borders are disintegrating, economic systems are straining, and frightened populations are being conditioned to accept emergency rule as a permanent way of life. The coming Antichrist will not rise in a peaceful and prosperous world. He will step forward from the wreckage of a world exhausted by war, overwhelmed by migration, terrified by economic collapse and begging someone—anyone—to restore order.

That is the real prophetic significance of what is happening. Iran, Ukraine and Spain are different flashpoints, but they are all producing the same result: confusion, fear, destabilization and a growing demand for international control. Satan is preparing the sickness before presenting his counterfeit cure. First comes the chaos; then comes the man promising peace. First the nations are shaken; then the world reaches for a ruler powerful enough to control them. First comes the cry for safety; then comes the covenant that will begin Daniel’s seventieth week and lead straight into the time of Jacob’s trouble.

The world is not falling apart randomly, it is falling into prophetic alignment. The actors are taking their places, the ancient nations are moving, and the machinery of global war is grinding into motion. The Church is waiting for the Pretribulation Rapture, Israel is being prepared for the furnace, and the nations are being gathered toward judgment. The headlines are no longer whispering; they are shouting. Iran is burning, Russia is advancing, Europe’s borders are breaking, and the words of Jesus Christ are casting their unmistakable shadow over the entire world.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Anthony Fauci

They Censored NTEB For Questioning Fauci In 2021, Now He Pleads The Fifth As Republicans Use The Spectacle To Hide Trump’s Failing Iran War From Voters

Published

2 days ago

July 30, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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Anthony Fauci Pleads The Fifth More Than 100 Times As Republicans Resurrect The COVID Scandal To Distract Americans From Trump’s Widening Iran War Before The Midterm Elections

Back in June 2021, Facebook began the process of erasing the Now The End Begins Facebook page with 250,000 followers for daring to challenge the official COVID narrative, question the vaccines and expose the alliance forming between government power, pharmaceutical interests and Big Tech censorship. NTEB had spent more than a decade building its Facebook presence, publishing at that time nearly 9,000 articles and King James Bible teachings, only to be branded as ‘dangerous to the community’ for asking questions the political establishment did not want discussed. We were told to sit down, shut up and “trust the science,” while the social-media gatekeepers worked to make dissent disappear. We did not remain silent back then even as we were being unpublished by our social media overlords, and LORD willing, we will never be silent here in 2026.

“And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” Isaiah 59:14

Now the man who became the face of that entire operation has returned to Capitol Hill—and suddenly Anthony Fauci has nothing to say. Subpoenaed before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer more than 100 questions concerning COVID’s origins, American funding of research in Wuhan and whether his private records contradicted his public testimony. Fauci accused Senator Rand Paul of conducting an “unhinged” campaign to put him behind bars, while Paul announced that the committee would vote on holding him in contempt. Fauci had already received a preemptive pardon from Joe Biden covering his government service through January 19, 2025, but his lawyers argued that new testimony could expose him to fresh accusations of perjury. Fauci needs to stand trial, but don’t be fooled as to why this is all happening now.

Everyone is piling on Anthony Fauci now, and rightly so, because he is effectively a COVID mass murderer. But what I want to know is where were these ‘brave souls’ back in 2020 and ’21, when Fauci was given the green light by DONALD TRUMP to do his evil deeds? And what about… pic.twitter.com/ODBkgmn1ow

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) July 30, 2026

Republicans are dragging Fauci back beneath the television lights precisely as Donald Trump’s Iran War is widening, American munitions are being consumed, diplomacy is collapsing and Tehran’s regime remains alive and fighting. The United States has resumed heavy strikes against Iran, Iran is again firing toward American forces, Saudi Arabia is striking Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, and what was sold as another display of overwhelming American power is mutating into an open-ended regional war. The Fauci hearing gives conservative media the perfect spectacle to relive the rage of 2020, watch Fauci squirm, and keep Republican voters from staring too closely at the strategic disaster unfolding in the Middle East.

After Americans were censored, suspended, ridiculed and threatened for questioning him, his refusal to answer legitimate questions under oath is historically stunning. At the same time, Republicans must not be permitted to turn Anthony Fauci into a political smoke bomb. Donald Trump placed Fauci before the American people, kept him there, launched Operation Warp Speed and repeatedly promoted the vaccines. Now the GOP wants applause for questioning Fauci while demanding silence concerning Trump’s war. Same stage, different distraction—and once again, the American people are being told where to look and what they are permitted to question. The players will change, but the song remains the same. Anthony Fauci only had power because Donald Trump gave it to him, remember that.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

China

Here On Day 151 Of World War Trump, China Is Now The Official Supplier Of Shoulder-Fired Air Defense Missile Launchers To Iran As The Conflict Greatly Expands

Published

3 days ago

July 29, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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China Moves To Rearm Iran With 400 Shoulder-Fired Missiles As World War Trump Widens Into A Dangerous Global Confrontation With America In The Crosshairs

What you are watching is no ordinary weapons sale, it’s the widening of the Middle East war into a confrontation between the world’s great powers. According to Reuters, Iran could soon receive as many as 400 Chinese-made QW-12 and FN-16 shoulder-fired air-defense systems in a deal worth up to $70 million. America and Israel spent months blasting holes through Iran’s defenses, and now Communist China appears ready to help Tehran fill those holes with hundreds of portable, heat-seeking missiles. Washington drops the bombs, Beijing replaces the weapons, and Iran prepares for the next round. This is how a regional war begins mutating into something much larger and infinitely more dangerous. Welcome to World War Trump where things have been going very badly, and getting worse by the day.

“Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:” Ezekiel 38:5 (KJB)

Do not underestimate these weapons because they are carried on a man’s shoulder. A fixed radar installation can be photographed by satellites, targeted by coordinates and destroyed with a precision strike. A MANPADS team, or Man-portable air-defense system, can hide inside a building, travel in an ordinary vehicle, emerge without warning and disappear immediately after firing. These missiles will not make Iran’s airspace impenetrable or bring down high-flying B-2 bombers, but rather transform the lower skies over Iran into a deadly ambush zone for helicopters, drones, surveillance platforms and low-flying aircraft. Every airbase, missile facility, refinery and command center could suddenly be protected by launchers that American planners cannot easily locate or eliminate.

This is the terrible arithmetic of America’s unfinished war, otherwise known as World War Trump. The United States expends million-dollar missiles and billion-dollar aircraft to destroy Iran’s defenses, while China helps Tehran replace a dangerous layer of those defenses for a comparatively modest $60–70 million. Iran does not have to defeat the United States in the air; it merely has to make every mission more expensive, every flight more dangerous and every strike more politically costly. Tehran is learning from every American attack, dispersing its weapons, hardening its facilities and purchasing exactly the systems needed to complicate the next assault. The longer this war continues, the less Iran resembles the vulnerable target struck at its beginning.

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Then comes the China factor. Beijing does not have to fire directly upon American forces to wage war against American power. It can arm Iran, supply dual-use technology, sustain Tehran’s military industry and force Washington to drain its own stockpiles thousands of miles from home. If the reported shipment travels through Pakistan and into Iran, it would reveal the emergence of an eastern military-supply corridor operating beyond Washington’s control. China, of course, has denied the report and Pakistan denies involvement, but if the delivery occurs, the strategic message will be unmistakable: America’s enemies are beginning to replenish one another, the nightmare does not end at Iran’s borders. Portable missiles can be hidden, transported and transferred far more easily than large air-defense batteries. If even a fraction of these weapons eventually reached Iranian proxy forces, American troops, Israeli aircraft and civilian aviation throughout the region could face a whole new level of danger. Once these systems are dispersed, tracking every launcher will become virtually impossible, and Iran will have gone from surviving to thriving. How can that be? Because your King James Bible declares that Iran is a major power in the last days, that’s how.

Jesus warned that the closing days would be marked by “wars and rumours of wars,” and we are watching the machinery of those wars being assembled before our eyes. America strikes Iran. China rearms Iran. Russia strengthens its relationships across the East. Israel prepares for another attack, while every ceasefire becomes merely a pause to reload. These are not isolated headlines anymore, they are pieces of a rapidly forming global alignment. World War Trump has lit the end times fuse, the weapons are moving, and the nations, and the kingdoms, are busy choosing their sides. Exactly how the prophets say that it will be in the last days.