As an ex-Catholic, it's kind of chilling to see how much corrupting power the Catholic Church still wields.
1) The Murdoch media and Catholic journalists and opinion writers. Hundreds of pro-Pell articles written throughout the trial, with the express intent of influencing the jury and public opinion. Now there's a campaign by them against the Victorian justice system because it didn't deliver the verdict they demanded.
2) Politics. Continual character references and support for Pell, many from the 11 Catholic politicians that comprised most of Tony Abbott's 19 Cabinet positions. The convicted paedophile George Pell was ex-seminarian Abbott's mentor.
3) The police.
The Victorian police force now acknowledge that corrupt Catholic cops worked with criminals like Bishop Mulkearns to neutralise victims and destroy the careers of honest cops like Denis Ryan, who tried to prosecute paedophile priests and the criminal Catholic hierarchy of bishops that covered for them.
4) The legal fraternity. Lawyers have made the lives of victims hell and driven many to suicide, as part of an aggressive legal strategy driven by Pell and other Archbishops.
5) The financial services industry. Has worked with lawyers to conceal Church assets and provide a financial framework that can't effectively be sued for damages.
All these people enabled the abuse to happen and to continue to happen. They empowered the paedophiles and made them confident.
As the Catholic Church admitted at the Royal Commission, up to 40% of some religious orders were paedophiles. It's an astonishing figure. Given the way it has acted as a organised crime syndicate in facilitating abuse and covering it up though, perhaps it isn't a surprise that the Church was a magnet attracting paedophiles.
We need a Royal Commission investigating how the Catholic Church has corrupted our public institutions and public life, and how that corrupt influence is occurring now.
