Passport proves Cardinal George Pell’s point

[powerofk]

Are you claiming he forged the passport?

Also, the accuser seemed to think the passport would prove he’d been back to Australia. And now the goalposts move.

That’s been my point, and the point of the others on here. We’ve been backing the Cardinal, but mentioning how the accuser will probably move the goalposts - as happens with just about any person who accuses without proof, the accuser tends to insist on the accused to show proof that what happened was impossible, and no measure of proof will satisfy the accuser. This is particularly true when the accuser’s main goal is to drag the good name of the accused through the mud and destroy the reputation of the accused.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Well, you get the point.

My coworker travelled from Poland to Japan in 1970s – he said that they would land, refuel without leaving the plane, and take off again. Nowadays, it’s organized so that transit passengers can change planes without crossing the border.

Anyway – if the Cardinal has matching entry / exit UK stamps, then I’d say that he has proof, if he has only entry stamps… not so much. But, there should also be other paperwork to demonstrate that he was inded in UK, such as records of trip expenses.

This was 1969, 46 years ago. Who keeps records of trip expenses for 46 years?

I think we should just take it that his passport proves he was overseas in 1969, and not in Ballarat. As someone else said, computers weren’t so much in vogue back then apart from a few mainframes. So the stamping was probably more rigorous, bearing in mind the cold war mentality that prevailed back then.

Cardinal Pell is based in Sydney, which is the centre of the homosexual scene in Australia. You can bet that every time there’s an opportunity to harass him in some way, wherever there is a homosexual influence within or without a media organisation, they’ll use it.

 

[pnewton]

One wonders how many other allegations are falsely made now that it seems incumbent on the clergy to prove their innocence to remove guilt. This is precisely why statute of limitations must be in place, even though many places have removed them to help alleged victims of abuse as a child. Justice cannot be done decades after an event in cases where physical evidence is unavailable.

 

[maryjk]

That’s not necessarily true at all.
All anyone is saying is that the passport is not definitive proof that he wasn’t there, because many times a passport is not stamped when leaving or entering a new country.
I, too, have found that when I’m traveling thru Europe, some countries stamp my passport and others do not.

He kept his passport that’s over forty years old?

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I have mine from 45 years ago.

It shows everywhere I had been. And back then? They stamped it. At least they did for me.

It was quite interesting to show to my son. Yes, my dear, Mommy is telling the truth when she says that she has been to Japan.

 

[Brendan_64]

He kept his passport that’s over forty years old?

I have every passport that has ever been issued to me. Forty years is only 4 passports ago. Before the widespread us of computers people kept important documents from the past. My mum used to keep biscuit tins tin with receipts of purchases of items going back many decades.

Are you implying that Cardinal Pell produced a passport that wasn’t his original?

And back then? They stamped it.

They certainly did. The queue to get through passport control on arrival before you got through the airport could be quite long and time-consuming. Not like the collect your baggage and breeze through to the other side that we have these days.

 

[Micosil]

He kept his passport that’s over forty years old?

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Why does it surprise you that he kept an old travel document? Lots of people keep that, I know my dad loves to keep these things just in case.

 

[AnastasiaRomano]

He kept his passport that’s over forty years old?

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Sure, why wouldn’t he? I have my old passports (two of them, I’m currently on my third in my life). It’s a nice souvenir – fun to look at them and show my kids the stamps from different countries. It’s also proven to be quite useful when filling out visa application forms that ask me for ridiculous amounts of info about all the countries I’ve traveled to and on what dates – I just check my passport for the dates on the entry/exit stamps.