Cardinal to face Australian court on sexual abuse charges
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Wearing his clerical collar, the most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis arrived at an Australian court today ahead of a hearing to determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to put him on trial.
Australian Cardinal George Pell’s committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court before Magistrate Belinda Wallington is scheduled to take up to a month, with testimony of alleged victims likely to be suppressed.
Pope Francis’ former finance minister was charged in June of last year with sexually abusing multiple people in his Australian home state of Victoria. The details of the allegations against the 76-year-old cardinal have yet to be released to the public, though police have described the charges as “historical” sexual assault offenses – meaning the crimes that are alleged to have occurred decades ago.
BERLIN – A political impasse that kept Germany in limbo for more than five months ended Sunday as the center-left Social Democrats voted to join a government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.
The vote of the party’s 464,000 rank-and-file members revives a socalled “grand coalition” – the relatively dramafree but entirely loveless marriage of convenience between Germany’s traditionally dominant parties that governed for the previous four years.
More importantly, it averts a detour into what would have been uncharted political territory for the country, with Merkel facing an unpalatable choice between governing without a parliamentary majority or facing new elections following an inconclusive Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and Christian Democratic Union leader, acknowledges applause after addressing the CDU party conference in Berlin on Feb. 26.
September vote.
But even with the question of who will run Germany out of the way, the prolonged deadlock has left Merkel weakened. More so than at any other point in her tenure, questions are swirling over who will follow her as leader of Europe’s most populous nation.
Merkel will also have to reassert herself on the international stage, an arena where she has long held sway but from which she has largely been absent in recent months as domestic troubles consumed her attention.
She is now expected to move quickly to try to cement a legacy, especially in Europe, where she and French President Emmanuel Macron have their eyes on ambitious plans for reform.
The relief at the vote result showed in a flurry of tweets from members of her inner circle in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
“Let’s get to work! Germany and Europe,” tweeted Peter Altmaier, perhaps her closest confidante, who added a smiling sun emoji as well.
Merkel’s former and