A senior Vatican official Cardinal George Pell has said he has the full backing of Pope Francis as he prepared to testify for a second day at a public inquiry into child abuse in Australia.
In a BBC interview, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said the next pope will be free to change the current policy because the principle of celibacy wasn’t of divine origin as it hadn’t come directly from Jesus Christ.
One of the most high ranking officials in the Catholic Church, the Australian Cardinal and former Vatican treasurer George Pell has been convicted of sexually abusing two choir boys in Melbourne Cathedral.
He could see and hear the Reverend Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, but the priests, bishops and cardinals gathered for the retreat in the Vatican auditorium could not see or hear him.