Manpower.

I have often heard, from outside the hedge, that most of the work in the world is done by women. I do not doubt for a moment that there are parts of the world where men sit and drink coffee and play board games all day while the ladies slave away, but that has not been my observation in the western world. And it would appear that much of what the western world enjoys in terms of 'modern goods', clothing, footwear and the like is made by ladies in China and the Indian sub-Continent. Were those ladies to down-tools for a week there would likely be an interruption to supply chains and a slow reduction in 'stuff' on the shelves for a while.

But we would get by.

Not so if men downed-tools for a week.  I hazard we would be in strife well before the week was out.

The Tavern has been in need of some maintenance work and over the past few weeks we have had the stonemasons in (it is a very old Tavern), along with carpenters, glaziers, roofers, electricians and plumbers, etc. Every one of them has been a man.

We had a Tradies Night for them last evening and the place was packed. We appreciated them in Tavern fashion. Free Ale, all night, served by a Knight.

By the way, that photo above is a nonsense. Propaganda. It is never seen in real life. Five woman and four men. Tradies?

Yes, of course, in our 'equal society' such tasks can be done by women in equal numbers. But they aren't. 

"Women can do anything a man can do - and better " - come the shouts from beyond the hedge, but they don't and won't.

A chap gets tired of hearing all the hubris and cant.

Were men to down tools we would be done for in a week. 

Oz is a modern country, like America, Europe, and perhaps half a dozen other 'First World' Nations, and we depend on men to do ALL the essential work to keep us going. 

The ladies make sandwiches. Except they do that less and less, and with more and more resentment.

That is an exaggeration, I know. Blame a customer for that one. 

Yes, ladies work, but largely in offices doing the paperwork. Few are in the trades. No quotas for ladies in the trades. Quotas are reserved for boardrooms and politics. Ladies pulling the plug in the west would mean that our bills would be late.

But men pulling the plug would mean disaster.

Janet Bloomfield recognises this. She told us of what American men do. It is much the same in Oz.

What would a Men's Day Off look like?

Time for a reality check.

I personally reckon that most of what she now speaks of would take a week, but who am I to argue with a lady. 

First up, the entire power grid is down. 100% of power plant operators, distributors, and dispatchers are men. Now, it’s possible that there are a few women working in these occupations, but however many there are, they do not make up even 1% of the total workforce, so statistically, 100% of the workforce is male.

91% of the nation’s electrical engineers are men, and if they don’t show up for work, there is no one to monitor and manage the nation’s electrical supplies. Assuming some automation (designed by men, naturally) kicks in for the day, we had all better pray there are no problems. 97.6% of electrical power line installers and maintenance workers are men.

Lights out, ladies and gentlemen.

Don’t bother turning on your taps, either. Or flushing your toilets. 95.5% of water and liquid waste treatment plant and system operators are men.

Think you might be able to get out-of-town for the one day the men don’t show up?

Think again.

Planes are out.

95.9% of aircraft pilots and flight engineers are men. If you happen to find a plane with a female pilot, don’t get too excited. 98.4% of aircraft mechanics and service technicians are men. You can, however, be assured of your comfort as you sit on a pilotless aircraft that has no mechanic for pre-flight clearance, because 77.6% of flight attendants are female.

But they stop short of actually making the sandwiches!  

Should you be lucky enough to find a female pilot and a female technician to clear you for take-off, you still have some praying to do. Statistically, 0% of air traffic controllers and airfield operations specialists are women.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there are ZERO ladies working in air traffic control. There just aren’t enough to constitute even 1% of the workforce.

Trains, of course, are also out.

100% of locomotive engineers and operators are men, as are 100% of the workers who operate railroad brakes, signals and switches. 94.4% of railway yardmasters are men, but if you chance upon a female yardmaster, it won’t help you much. She can’t operate the trains.

You might have better luck with bus drivers, almost half of whom are women.

But the streets are likely to be chaos. And there won’t be anyone on hand to help you navigate that.

87.4% of police and sheriff’s patrol officers are men. 96.6% of firefighters are men. 68.8% of Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics are men, so if it all goes tits up and you get hurt, there’s a small chance you might make it to a hospital.

I hope you don’t get too badly hurt, though. 65.7% of all surgeons are men.

Maybe you should just work from home? In the dark, mind you. With no running water.

Uh-oh. Looks like that might be a problem, too.

For all computer and mathematical occupations combined, 74.4% of the workforce is male. Computer network architects, who design and implement all our computer based communications systems are 91.9% men. And 94.2% of radio and telecommunications equipment installers and repair technicians are men.

Looks like that plan is frucked.

Hope it doesn’t get too hot, or too cold the day men don’t show up for work. Even if you had power, which you don’t, you would be hard-pressed to get anyone in to take a look at your wonky air-conditioner or furnace.

98.4% of heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers are men.

Oh well. Guess you’ll have to mosey on down to the local café, which has no power either, but what’s logic and consequence anyways? Be careful when you step over all that accumulating garbage! Remember that most EMTs are men, and they’ve taken the day off. Don’t want to get hurt now.

Most garbage collectors are men, too – 93.4%, to be exact.

You’ll need to stop at the ATM first, for a little cash injection.

Oops. Don’t bother.

The machine hasn’t been filled with money today. 81.5% of security guards and gaming surveillance officers are men. It’s unlikely the banks would be functioning anyways, with no men at work. 72.1% of all securities, commodities and financial services sales agents are men. 72.6% of the nation’s CEOs would be taking the day off, along with 70.9% of all the general and operations managers.

Don’t count on getting a weather report today. Statistically, 0% of the nation’s atmospheric and space scientists are women.

Actually, don’t plan on acquiring pretty much anything today.  

The workers in the entire production, transportation and material moving occupations are 78.2% men. Not only will no goods be moving on the day men go on strike, they won’t be made, period. 82.4% of all the industrial production managers are men.

Nothing will be built or extracted from the earth in terms of raw materials. 97.5% of that workforce is male.

Nothing will be installed, maintained or repaired. 96.8% of that workforce is male.

If men took a collective day off, we would instantly be without power, without the means to communicate, without protection, without water, without trucks bringing us the food and products we take for granted, because men are the ones who provide all those things. 

-Janet Bloomfield was banned from Twitter after creating hashtag #womenagainstfeminism

All information taken from Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor.

So, there you have it. 'It' being just a glance at just a few instances of the essential work that is done by MEN. 

None of the tradies in the bar said a word about doing anything a woman can do - better or otherwise.

I do wish the wimminz outside the hedge would put a sock in it.

But I guess that would be a man's job too.

And as a voice from a corner of the bar shouted over.... And yet, how many apocalyptic TV shows are saturated with kick ass women saving the day and beating those nasty, toxic males? I'll betcha there are feminists out there who think, bring on that no-male apocalypse, we'll show ya... lmfao!!!

Drinks all round and a special one for Janet.

Now, before you go, I am sure we can all find a similarly comprehensive list of all the things we depend on women for.  

Give it a go. Let us have 'the other side'.

Pax.

Before Alcatraz

America often follows Britain, and indeed, Oz, in dealing with the dregs of society.  Long before Alcatraz there was Sarah Island, described in the day as HELL.  I went there on holiday. It pre-dates the largest and almost as notorious prison, Port Arthur,  which is much closer to the Tavern. Sarah Island is remote in the extreme; cold, wet, surrounded by water and dense forest, it was considered 'escape-proof'. It wasn't for the want of attempts though.

Alcatraz, for our non-American customers, is also notorious, and was established as a military prison in1828, and a federal prison from 1934 until 1963. Because of its isolation from the outside by the cold, strong, hazardous currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was used to house soldiers who were guilty of crimes as early as 1859. By 1861, the fort was the military prison for the Department of the Pacific and housed Civil War prisoners of war (POWs) as early as that year. Starting in 1863, the military also held private citizens accused of treason, after the writ of habeas corpus in the United States was suspended.

America's Sarah - Alcatraz

Sarah was for just civilian riff-raff of the very worst sort. Before the American Revolution Britain sent upward of 50,000 such riff-raff to the American Colonies, which perhaps explains some aspects of the wild west. But the theft of the New World brought about the development of the World Down Under, and a new place to send convicts. Hey, don't knock it. Back in the day it was considered a great and humane solution !! 

When you see the natural beauty of Macquarie Harbour, on the West Coast of Tasmania, it’s hard to imagine that back in the 1820s, this was the scene of incredible misery. However, the fact that the entrance to the harbour is known as Hell’s Gates should give you a clue. 

Entering the harbour through Hell’s Gates meant navigating waters so treacherous that many lost their lives here. For them it may have been their salvation because what awaited those who did make it was much, much worse than death. Almost all the vegetation of the island was cut down, such that huge wodden fences some 15 metres tall had to be erected along the length of the island to give some shelter from the high winds.

The trees and dense foliage there today is all regrowth.

Conditions at the penal settlement on Sarah Island in the southern part of the harbour were so harsh that one convict, only known as Trenham, went as far as stabbing a fellow inmate, reasoning that ..

this would get him executed and he wouldn’t have to

 spend more time in this hell. 

Originally, the Macquarie Harbour area was the territory of the Mimegin and the Lowreenne, two bands of the Toogee tribe. The Peternidic, a band of the North-west tribe, and the Ninene, a band of the South-west tribe, sometimes visited the area too. The Aboriginal people reffered to Sarah Island as Langerrareroune and it’s possible that the women used the island as a meeting place. 

In about 1815, when James Kelly sailed through Hell’s Gates to be the first European to visit Macquarie Harbour, he named Sarah Island after Sarah Birch, the wife of the merchant who had paid for the voyage. Within only a few years the island was selected as the site for a penal colony because it was so isolated and difficult to escape from.


At the beginning of 1822, the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station was established, with Sarah Island as its base. The convicts sent here were mostly male and were usually people who had committed further crimes while serving their original sentences in Van Diemen’s Land. Others were convicts who had escaped and were recaptured, while some of the most dangerous criminals were sent here directly once they got off the transport ships in Hobart Town. 

Gordon River

Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell wanted a penal settlement that would be economically viable enough to cover the costs of having established it in the first place. Sarah Island, like the land surrounding Macquarie Harbour, had a valuable natural resource: huge Huon pines that were perfect for shipbuilding and growing all down the Gordon River. 

In those first years of settlement, the convicts spent their days cutting timber, usually in chains. This didn’t require much skill but it was hard work made even harder by the cold and rain. Things didn’t get any better at night, with barracks so crowded that the inmates couldn’t sleep on their backs. 

Floggings were par for the course and the food was so inadequate that scurvy and dysentery were rampant. Prisoners could also be sent to nearby Grummet Island, alternatively known as Condemned Island, for solitary confinement. It is little wonder that the first escape attempt happened two months after the settlement was established and that during the first six years, 156 escape attempts were recorded. 

Not many would-be escapees actually made it and around half died during their attempts. Among those who did make it was James Goodwin. Goodwin and a fellow inmate, Thomas Connell, secretly carved themselves a canoe and slipped away from their timber-cutting party. The pair rowed up the Gordon and then the Franklin Rivers until a waterfall forced them to continue on foot. They then continued on, across rugged mountains and through dense forests, heading east to the settled areas. Eventually they parted ways and that was the last that anybody had heard of Connell. 

Goodwin, however, reached Ouse, where he was captured. Luckily for him, because he knew so much about the uncharted Western Wilderness, he was pardoned and given a job with the Surveyor General.

An inmate who escaped not once, but twice, was the notorious Alexander Pearce. Pearce, an Irishman, had been transported to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing several pairs of shoes. He first escaped in September 1822, along with seven others. Pearce had been at Sarah Island for only six weeks. The group had originally planned to steal a whaleboat and sail north but after they overpowered their overseer, things went awry and they ran into the wilderness instead. 

A little over a week later they were starving, so they drew lots and killed the loser, who then became their meal. 

Two of the men left the next day, trying to get back to Macquarie Harbour rather than becoming the next items on the menu. The rest of the group continued on their journey and also continued picking off and eating the weakest one 

until only Pearce was left. 

He made it to civilisation but was captured and sent to Hobart Town, where neither the magistrate nor the parson would believe his story. So, he was sent back to Macquarie Harbour, where he soon escaped again, this time with one other inmate as company. He was captured within 11 days and found carrying human flesh in his pocket. Of his companion there was no trace. 

In June 1824, at around the same time that Pearce was being tried for murder in Hobart Town, another convict who would become infamous, escaped from Sarah Island. 

Matthew Brady was one of fifteen men who stole a boat and sailed along the coast to the estuary of the Derwent River. Brady became a bushranger and somewhat of a folk hero with the nickname ‘Gentleman Brady’ because he always displayed impeccable manners while he was robbing his victims.

To solve the problem of transporting the timber from Macquarie Harbour, Sarah Island became a shipbuilding centre. For a while it was the largest operation of its kind in Australia, with more than 100 vessels built during the existence of the penal settlement. (actually 131, with near 100 being built under the direction of one Mr Hoy, who learned his craft in Dundee and became a master shipwright in Boston, USA). Interesting fellow. Civilian. Not a Prisoner.  He joined the 6 other civilians, all women, on the Island who were not prisoners or soldiers, but wives and daughters of soldiers. 

Remains of ship slipway

Well-behaved convicts could now get transferred to ‘softer’ duties like gardening, smithing or boat-building and skilled tradesmen were encouraged to come and work on the island, which became an industrial village.  

The Island's Cook, a lady called Sarah (the island not named for her) was the spider in a web of graft, corruption, blackmail, contraband smuggling and extortion that reached back to Hobart Town and even Sydney. She cooked the books as well as the rotting meat.

The shipbuilding operation on Sarah Island led to 

one of the most daring escapes from the penal settlement. 

In 1834, ten convicts who had helped build a brig named the Frederick stole the incomplete ship as it was preparing to sail for Hobart Town. They sailed west and made it all the way to Chile, (yes, that Chile, in South America), where they had to abandon ship because of a leak. They rowed the ship’s whaleboat to shore and pretended to be shipwrecked sailors. Four of the men were captured and brought back to stand trial on charges of piracy. 

However, these charges couldn’t stick because the ship had not been completed and had not been seized in open waters, so they were only found guilty of robbery. ("It was just sticks and some rope and a bit of canvas, yer 'onner. Honest"). It helped their case, too, that the ships logs were never found, nor its Commissioning papers. ("So, yer see, yer 'onner, it weren't really a ship, innit?")

The Round Earth Theatre Company in Strahan, the nearest town to Sarah Island, tells the story of the Frederick in the very popular play The Ship That Never Was, the longest-running play in Australia.

The Macquarie Harbour Penal Station was closed down in 1833 but in 1847, Sarah Island was used as a probation station. At various times during the next three decades and again in the 1930s and 1940s, timber cutters used Sarah Island as their base camp. Today only ruins remain on the island, among them the ‘new’ penitentiary completed in 1828. 

To visit Sarah Island, you can charter a yacht but the most popular way to get here is as part of a cruise from Strahan. Members of the Round Earth Theatre Company present excellent guided tours of the island, bringing its infamous history to life.

So, there you are or there you might go.

But first, have a long, cool drink.

And be good.

Pax

Holiday to Hell's Gate.

When a chap lives in Paradise, where should he go for a complete change?  I took m'self off to Hell's Gate: but that was after visiting the sinful city, the teeming metropolis of Melbourne. One has to 'prepare', you see. More of Hell  later.

I was away, as you may have noticed, for a short while, on the Big Island to the North to see m'beloved son in whom I am well pleased, and to enjoy a sea journey. I drove up-State to Devonport to load my car on the Spirit of Tasmania for an overnight sailing, calling in at Westbury to speak with a new Priest there (whom I did not get to see, as it turned out). But the drive and the sailing were pleasant and without hassle.

The Knight and the Heir.

I enjoy the occasional travelling to the mainland, making the trip at least every two years to see the Airshow and Avalon. 

This year m'lad had organised fine grandstand seats from which we had an unimpeded view. Not that we stayed there all day. There was much to see on the ground with a superb array of civil and military aircraft to look at, sit in and join the long lines of people to walk through.

Would that I could share it all with you, but here are a few minutes that give the sounds, even if the smell of the avgas is missing.

Most of the explosions were simulated, of course, but there was one, unplanned. A member of the local flying wild-life took too close a look at a C17 and got sucked in. Aborted that take-off.

I admit some envy of the rich for their facilities, especially the private jets they fly around in. I would make a very fine filthy-rich man, I think. But fate has taken m'wealth from me and cast me as a poor Knight. With a Pub !!

Time was taken to travel through the Dandenong Ranges where I had spent some previous life. If you ever get the chance to visit, you must take that delight too. We had a fine dining at m'lad's, with his Lady being one of the best chefs in the State. Heck, she even had 'awards'. 

On the Spirit, Enjoying the comforts.

Then it was time to leave the comforts of m'son's modest Palace and go back across the sea to my Island. That feeling of 'coming home' is always pleasant and the ferry trip is very comfortable with a variety of things to do aboard. I now faced more travel. 

Barrington.

As I spend most of my time in the Tavern, busy, I do not get to see the north-west of the island very often, so this was the opportunity. I drove to the National Rowing Centre at Lake Barrington: a beautiful and very quiet spot where, that day, the only sounds were of birds in the forests that line the lake. There were no others there to be seen and I had the place to m'self for a while. Well, almost. Just as I was adding a little of my own 'home brew' to the pristine waters, a chap came jogging by !! Bugger ! 

Mt Roland

The North-West country is mountainous, stunningly beautiful with an almost rugged 'european' feel to it, especially where it has been tamed, with the first section dominated by Mt Roland. It was the first thing I saw of Tasmania the very first time I came here, deep in the winter, many years ago. Everywhere was covered in snow and Roland could be seen from 40 miles at sea. Now it was just stark and majestic in the early morning. And so I drove, through the hills, past lakes and cliffs and green country.

And so to Strahan; and the great Macquarie Harbour. 

It is the second largest in the southern hemisphere and has no great ports or industry: it has this small, tidy, well preserved fishing village that delights everyone who finds it. (Oh, and some fish-farms.) 

And it is near the dreaded entrance: Hell's Gate.

Hells Gates is the name of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania. It is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel entrance to the harbour. The actual channel is between Macquarie Heads on the west and Entrance Island on the east (the main length of the harbour runs southeast of Hells Gates). There is a wider area of water between Entrance Island and Macquarie Head, but it is too shallow to get a boat over. A sand bar. Even a small boat has trouble. 

The name of the channel relates to the original convicts' claim that it was their point of 'entrance to Hell', their Hell being the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island and the outlying surrounds of the harbour.

I took a boat to it and through it. And later to Hell itself. Sarah Island.

On the tide, the waters rush through the narrow channel, far too fast for navigation. The Southern Ocean is merciless most of the time, aided and driven by the Roaring Forties. This day it was quite mild. 

Sarah Island was rarely mild. The prisoners there - in the days past - were recalitrants, given to escape and further crime. Escape was deemed impossible although there were attempts. 

It was the Oz Alcatraz. 

Getting across the water was hard enough only for the escapees to be faced with impenetrable forest.

Perhaps I shall say more about Sarah Island another time.

Meanwhile....I did have a guided tour of the penal area. Here is someone else's rendition. The boat I mentioned in shown early on. This was taken/made just a few weeks and a year ago. The weather was very much the same.

I stayed a few days in a comfortable place run by a gentleman with whom I had a shared history. He was in the Far East at the same time as I, although several hundred miles to the North in Malaya. He now operates a hostelry, and I a pub !! We never met at the time, but had much to share in anecdotes and memories. 

If you are in Strahan, I recomment his place to you. Kitty's Place. It was excellent.

The trip back to the Tavern was an all-day bizzo across the island. More mountains. More miles. More stops along the way. More beautiful Tassie countryside.

But tiredness and eagerness to be back in the Tavern is upon me and I have pints to pull and tables to wipe.

I hope I have given a taste of my trip to Hell and back.

Have a drink.

Pax

For Whom does the Pell Toll?

I doubt many Saints could get through a week without committing some sin: those that could are a better man than me, Gunga Din. Not quite Kipling but it will do. These days the sins are not so much theological as Politically Incorrect and we can all find ourselves in the Frame. Barely was I back from my travels than I found the news full of R.Kelly and Cardinal Pell. It was a toss up as to which was getting the most headlines. I have no idea who the Kelly nonebrity is: Pell, though, has been mentioned in the Tavern many a time, being as he is rather more powerful and saintly .... and reviled.

""Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"".....

(sometimes expressed as troublesome or meddlesome) 

....is an utterance attributed to Henry II of England, which led to the death of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. While it was not expressed as an order, it caused four knights to travel from Normandy to Canterbury, where they killed Becket. 

Who sought the destruction of Cardinal Pell, one wonders, and were the 12 Jury members parachuted in from outside Melbourne to cut him down with their legal swords, under Judicial Direction?

Felix Lechat summed up the issue.

Trial by leftard media of a man who for years was pilloried and demonized for being very vocally opposed to all the fad leftard causes: abortion on demand, ssm, transgenderism foisted on kids, the global-warming hoax, and so on. I doubt that anywhere in Australia could have been assembled a jury that would not have felt the impact of this, at least subconsciously. 

Found guilty, then, not on any evidence but on mere unsubstantiated allegations from a single complainant, that presented a totally implausible scenario that in any unbiased court would have been dismissed immediately. 

If Pell's conviction is not reversed on appeal the whole of Australia should mourn, not only for Pell, but for the total breakdown of our justice system.

Barely has the fish and chips stained the pages of the National newspapers than the wholly parochial Catholic newspaper in Tasmania was withdrawn because a local worthy had dared to question the veracity and stainlessness of the souls of Pell's various accusers, most of who had no dog in the fight. Think of the media frenzy condemning the Covington Boys recently.  

To the good Dr Daintree I say, stand, sir. The Taverners stand with you. To the Church hierarchy, boo, hiss. To the stables with you.

Never Apologise.

Enough with the Suppression of Free Speech.

YOU ARE NEXT

For those not in the Oz Bar who came in to see what the hub-bub was about, we had a couple of fine folk explain.

Anna Silvas (aka. Anna the Sinner and clearly one of us) was first to her feet. 

Cardinal Pell is innocent, that's why

«I don’t believe that justice was served in this jury trial. It has all the smell of a ritual sacrifice for an ugly agenda». 

«In 1996 Pell refused the communion to a gay crowd that disrupted a mass. The homosexualist agenda in Church and Society has been gunning for him ever since». 

«Also within the Australian Church, there is a large party of hostility to Pell. Many of these will be aging clergy of the Spirit of the Seventies».

 http://lanuovabq.it/it/cardinal-pell-is-innocent-thats-why

To begin with: I don’t believe that justice was served in this jury trial. It has all the smell of a ritual sacrifice for an ugly agenda, to me.

I have often attended Mass in that right transept under the organ loft of the Cathedral in Melbourne (the most beautiful Cathedral in Australia, with the most noble Gothic spire in the world, I would say). I have often been a few metres from that door that leads down a short passage into the area of the sacristies, and often seen the altar servers, choir and priests processing in and out of there.  I just cannot see that there could be a place for the perpetration of the vices of which Pell has now been convicted in a jury trial, least of all in the circumstances of High Mass on Sunday.

I have had the privilege of listening at length, more than once, to Monsignor Charles Portelli, who was Pell’s Master of Ceremonies in the five years Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne. Portelli is a man of fine intelligence, probity and culture. He captained the Archbishop in all that concerned the Sunday Liturgy, and all its preparatory and subsequent circumstances. All Pell’s deeds were witnessed and accompanied by Portelli.

George Pell too is a man of great probity, intelligence and culture, exceptionally so, I would say, among Australian bishops. That already puts him offside, in the Tall Poppy Syndrome, quite a cultural characteristic in Australian society. 

I have no doubt that Cardinal Pell, like me, is a sinner, and in his inner journey of chastity before the Lord, he has had his struggles, for virtue untested is not virtue. But the arena for this was internal, in the privacy of his soul. 

It is unthinkable that after thirty years or more of committed and proven intellectual, moral, priestly and episcopal life, that he, just having been appointed a Metropolitan, should on the first occasion of a Sunday Mass stoop to so crass and crude and sordid an exercise of pedophilia of which he has been legally convicted. No, it requires a certain preparatory moral degradation to resort to such casual stunts.

Now for a little of what I can see of the wider context of the Australian Church and society.

First I mention a news item of 1996 which I clearly remember. Very early on, a ‘gay’ crowd staged a public ‘rainbow’ protest in a Sunday Mass. When they fronted up to received Holy Communion, Pell refused them. 

The homosexualist agenda in Church and Society has been gunning for him ever since. One of the most vicious attacks on him lately has been that of David Marr. 

He is a ‘public intellectual’ of left wing Australia, a long ‘outed’ homosexual and advocate of the ‘gay’ cause, and virulently anti-Catholic. 

The passionate moral indignation of such a figure who would wag his finger against the Catholic Church, tells us that something is going on much deeper than the to and fro of legal and political debate.

For decades Australian politics (including the erstwhile ‘centre-right’ Liberal Party), the mainstream media, and the cultural elites have been drifting steadily Leftward into the totalitarian and conformist world of Political Correctness. Part of that shift involves a less and less disguised hostility to the Western tradition and its Judaeo-Christian underpinnings in general, and to the Catholic Church in particular.

Alas, within the Australian Church herself, there is a large party of hostility to Pell. Many of these will be aging clergy of the Spirit of the Seventies. 

For Pell was always an intentionally orthodox Catholic priest, his stance towards the Second Vatican Council in the spirit of Pope Benedict’s Hermeneutic of Continuity. Never subscribed to the rebellion against Humanae Vitae. Thus you find the strange paradox that Catholic ‘progressives’ who are in favour of changing the Church’s sexual ethic, who are soft on divorce and remarriage, abortion, homosexuality, and are predictable sponsors of the latest faddish political enthusiasms, themselves exploit the incidence of sexual abuse within the Church to perversely promote their cause. 

They have the spirit of David Marr in them.

Alas, as a retired bishop said to me recently, we have given a lot of ammunition to those who would attack us from without—or subvert us from within. 

There has been a disturbing number of priests in the Melbourne Archdiocese implicated in sexual scandals over the last three or four decades, as has emerged in public enquiries in recent years. Without a doubt, the Church, whether in Australia or worldwide is semper purificanda. 

We are long overdue for a severe chastisement, if you ask me, 

.....and I think things are set to become much worse for us. Just consider soberly the state of our higher leadership right now.

In the midst of the exposure of the moral and spiritual weakness of the Church in Australia, we also have another tragic fallout: the accusation of innocent priests and others. 

It is hard to be caught between the victims of clerical sexual predation crying out for vindication against a culture of cover-up, and the clerical victims of predatory false accusation and slander. 

I have heard tell that these days any priest who is accused is likely to be treated as a ‘hot potato’ by his bishop: he is basically dropped. 

They seem a cowardly lot, bishops. 

Or perhaps they will style it ‘prudent’.

I do not know whether the legal appeal against Pell’s conviction will succeed or not. Let us consider the worst-case scenario, that it will not. In that case, my reading of Pell’s situation would go something like this. 

Jesus Christ his Lord loves him too much to leave him at the pinnacle of ecclesiastical advancement. Pell joins the ranks of the innocent sufferers, from Abel even to our Lord. Perhaps he is called to carry a burden of vicarious suffering for fellow-priests and believers who are not so innocent, and for a Church in great need of repentance.

Perhaps in another way Cardinal Pell is winning the greatest ecclesiastical ‘advancement’ of all, to approach something of the original condition of the Apostles in the earliest years of the Church: For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. 

We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men. 

We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.(1 Cor 4:9-10)

Pray for Cardinal Pell, and pray for …

Anna the Sinner

I shall, m'dear. A cleansing drink for the Lady.

On her feet the moment Anna sat, Lianne Laurence took the attention to give details others might have missed.

Jailed Cdl. Pell would likely win appeal based on ‘unreasonable’ guilty verdict: experts

Legal experts say Australia’s Cardinal George Pell has a strong case to appeal his sexual abuse convictions on the basis of "unreasonableness," the Guardian has reported.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/jailed-cdl.-pell-would-likely-win-appeal-based-on-unreasonable-guilty-verdict-experts 

That’s also the opinion of American Catholic writer George Weigel, a longtime friend of the 77-year-old prelate who is now in protective custody at a maximum security prison awaiting his sentence on March 13, after which time the appeal process can start.

Pell was found guilty by jury in December of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys 22 years ago. Each of the five convictions — one of sexual penetrating a child under 16, and four of an indecent act with a child under 16 – carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.

Pell’s first trial on the charges ended in September with a hung jury, with 10 of the 12 supporting Pell’s acquittal. The Crown opted literally to try again.

Just two wanted him convicted. 10 did not find for Guilt.

Looks like the 'authorities' found 10 more to vote 'properly'. 

Pell’s lawyer Robert Richter said at a plea hearing Wednesday the appeal will be based on three grounds: unreasonableness, the ban on video evidence in Richter’s closing summation, and the makeup of the jury.

While the last two grounds seem “flimsy,” Pell’s legal team has a strong case for appeal grounds of unreasonableness, which means the jury’s verdict is not supported by evidence, it reported.

“This is the defence’s best shot,” Professor Jeremy Gans, University of Melbourne law school’s criminal appeals and procedure expert, told the Guardian.

Moreover, winning an appeal on the grounds of unreasonableness means “there can almost certainly be no new trial, Gans said, “Because once a court decides a guilty verdict is unreasonable it means they don’t think guilty should be the verdict in the next trial either. They would almost certainly acquit.”

One judge initially reviews the appeal application, but it’s virtually certain it will be heard.

“No judge would decide not to allow an appeal in such a high-stakes trial,” Gans told the Guardian. 

“Their grounds of appealing on unreasonableness is solid.”

Three judges will hear the appeal and unanimous agreement is not required for a ruling. 

The process can take ten months or more, according to the Guardian, but because of Pell’s age and health — he is recovering from double knee replacement surgery — it’s likely the process will be accelerated.

There are a number of reasons Pell’s appeal will succeed, Gans told the Guardian, most notably that the prosecution had only one key witness, and the second alleged victim, who died five years ago, denied he had been sexually abused.

However, a jury is free to convict if they find one witness “believable,” he said.

A number of observers have joined Weigel in decrying the verdict after Judge Peter Kidd lifted a publication ban on the trial earlier this week.

It’s now revealed the lone complainant alleged he and another choirboy left the procession after Sunday High Mass at Melbourne’s cathedral, went into the sacristy and were drinking sacramental wine when Pell surprised them and proceeded to sexually abuse them.

Weigel listed in the National Review the ten “improbable” things that would have had to have happened within 10 minutes for this story to be true: 

• Archbishop Pell abandoned his decades-long practice of greeting congregants outside the cathedral after Mass.

• Pell, who was typically accompanied by a master of ceremonies or sacristan when he was vested for Mass, entered the carefully controlled space of the vesting sacristy alone.

• The master of ceremonies, charged with helping the archbishop disrobe while removing his own liturgical vestments, had disappeared.

• The sacristan, charged with the care of the locked sacristy, had also disappeared.

• The sacristan did not go back and forth between the sacristy and the cathedral sanctuary, removing missals and Mass vessels, as was his responsibility and consistent practice.

• The altar servers, like the sacristan, simply disappeared, rather than helping the sacristan clear the sanctuary by bringing liturgical vessels and books back to the sacristy.

• The priests who concelebrated the Mass with Pell were not in the sacristy disrobing after the ceremony. 

• At least 40 people did not notice that two choirboys left the post-Mass procession.

• Two choirboys entered the sacristy, started gulping altar wine, and were accosted and abused by Archbishop Pell — while the sacristy door was open and the archbishop was in full liturgical vestments.

• The abused choirboys then entered the choir room, through two locked doors, without anyone noticing, and participated in a post-Mass rehearsal; no one asked why they had been missing for ten minutes.

It’s clear to Weigel that Pell has been wrongfully convicted.

“If it is not reversed on appeal, that false verdict will constitute a new indictment: 

the indictment of a legal system that could not bring itself to render justice in the face of public hysteria, political vendetta, and media aggression,” 

he wrote in First Things,

He compared the public mood in Australia to that of “Salem, Massachusetts, during the witchcraft hysteria of the seventeenth century.”

Victoria police began a “fishing expedition against Pell, a year before any complaint had been received from an alleged victim,” wrote Weigel.

Tellingly, the Guardian’s David Marr noted that “sitting quietly up the front” at Pell’s plea hearing Wednesday “was Detective Chris Reed, the Victorian policeman who has pursued Pell for the last four years. 

His work is also on trial here.”

Known for his doctrinal orthodoxy, Pell has been subjected for some 25 years to “calumnies” in “both the hyper-secularist Australian media and in Church circles determined to hang on to their dreams of post–Vatican II revolution,” wrote Weigel.

The Holy See announced Wednesday it is opening an investigation into allegations against Pell. The Cardinal in his former role as Vatican treasurer was tasked with cleaning up corruption and was considered the third most powerful man in the Vatican.

And do I have a view? From behind the bar? 

Yes. I say there is doubt. Considerable doubt.  Reasonable doubt. 

And no man should be convicted unless a jury is Certain, beyond a reasonable doubt. 

A man with so many enemies, at home and abroad, is vulnerable to wickedness.

But wait. Who am I to 'doubt'? Oz Courts of Law are notoriously 'fair' and 'honest'. No-one ever tells a lie in a Court. They swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, innit? And the dictum is that it is better ten guilty people go free rather than one innocent one goes to jail. Innit? Who ever heard of an innocent dingo ever going to jail for taking a baby when there is a mother to do the time.

And what possible reason would someone have for telling a lie about something 22 years ago? Fame? Money? Excuse? "I'm depraved, yer 'onner' cuz of what that man did 22 years ago. Gimme me compo". Hey this wasn't Smollet and Trump.

I pray for Cardinal Pell. I am no-where near convinced of any guilt on his part.

That is not to say that victims of abuse do not have cause for my prayers too. One has to properly establish that they really are victims though, and not liars and embezzlers from the Parish Collection plates.

Drinks for the two ladies and for the gentleman.

Pax