‘Pedos’: Shocking Pope debate on national TV

A firey debate has erupted on live TV over Pope Francis and the Catholic Church.

The Labor Party has defended a candidate who accused the late Pope of providing “ongoing support for pedos” on the grounds she counselled child sex abuse victims.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume have clashed over the issue in Sunrise amid calls for Helen Madell to be disendorsed.

“Your question about the candidate - I mean, this is a person who has counselled child sexual abuse victims,” Labor frontbencher Clare O’Neil said.

“She’s seen first hand some of the damage that’s been done to families and communities and she made some intemperate excepts five years ago, and I think if we’re counting anyone who’s ever said anything intemperate, most people in Australia will never be eligible to sit for Parliament.

“I don’t think anyone’s trying to excuse it. I think this is a person who’s counselled child sex abuse victims.”

The Liberals have accused the ALP of double standards after the PM savaged a Liberal candidate for saying women were not suitable for combat roles. He was later disendorsed.

As Senator Hume repeatedly called on her to condemn the comments Ms O’Neil said the comments were not appropriate but understandable in circumstances.

Helen Madell is under fire for her social media posts.

“Well, really, respectfully to you, Jane, these are things that she wrote on Twitter five years ago. These are not things that she said yesterday, when the world’s in mourning for someone who’s been a very important leader for the Catholic Church,” she said.

“The honest situation is this is a person who wrote some things that she now regrets, five years ago on Twitter, and I say again, Jane: if we could go back five years for you or me, we’ve probably said things we regret.”

“I don’t accuse people of being paedophiles,” Senator Hume shot back.

The PM was under fire for failing to disendorse Ms Madell, a clinical psychologist, local business owner, mother, and Australian Army veteran who is running in the Queensland electorate of Flynn.

But Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles declined to condemn the tweets on Tuesday night insisting it was a tough day for Catholics.

“Today for millions of Australians and millions of Catholics it is a very difficult day,’’ he said.

“That is very much the view of Labor across the board.

The posts were debated on Sunrise.

“The position that the PM has made is clear that we stand today with the millions of Catholics.

“I’ve answered that question.”

Liberal Party campaign spokesman James Paterson accused the ALP of running and ducking for cover.

“So I thought that it was a failure of leadership by the deputy prime minister tonight to not call out those appalling tweets by the candidate in Flynn,’’ he said.

“Wasn’t able to say whether or not they stand by her. Wasn’t even able to clearly condemn what she has said.

“If the Prime Minister is sincere, and I believe he is, about his affection for the Pope and his leadership, then he shouldn’t want someone on his team who said those awful things about the Pope and the only option for Labor to disendorse the Flynn candidate tomorrow.”

In one social media post from 2020 that was posted at 3.51am, Ms Madell responded to an X-post about His Holiness the Pope visiting Iraq.

A Labor candidate running in the federal election repeatedly attacked the late Pope Francis and the Catholic Church for "ongoing support for pedos" in a series of deleted social media posts.

A Labor candidate running in the federal election repeatedly attacked the late Pope Francis and the Catholic Church for "ongoing support for pedos" in a series of deleted social media posts.

The post mentioned that Pope Francis would visit the “cradle of civilisation”, the original site of Mesopotamia in a journey that would underline his shared values of dignity and justice.

“Don’t know how he can promote common values,’’ she said.

“I hope no one else embraces the ongoing support for pedos.”

In another post on the same date, she responded to another social media user urging Pope Francis to “make sure those pedo priests go to jail” instead of “drinking tea together”.

“Too right,’’ Ms Madell responded.

“He needs to clean his own backyard before parading peace,’’ she said.

“No peace for those poor victims of abuse at the hands of the ‘righteous’.

“But with open arms he embraces pedo Pell.”

On Tuesday, Ms Madell told news.com.au she was responsible for the posts.

“These posts were made years ago and I perhaps didn’t choose my words perfectly,” she said.

“But it doesn’t change my deep conviction on this issue. We must do everything we can to stamp out the scourge of child sex abuse.

“I’ve treated victims of child sex abuse in my work as a clinical psychologist, so I’ve seen first-hand the horrific, lifelong impacts these despicable crimes have on people.

“I want to send my condolences to all Catholics and others who are today mourning Pope Francis. His commitment to peace, equality and inclusion should be celebrated.”

George Pell and the Catholic Church

At the time of the social media posts, the High Court had overturned Cardinal George Pell’s conviction.

In April 2020, the High Court upheld Cardinal Pell’s appeal against conviction and acquitted him of five sexual offences.

The High Court held there is “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt”.

George Pell. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

He was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse and spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia only to have his convictions overturned.

Pope Francis had brought Pell to the Vatican in February 2014 to reform its finances as the first prefect of the newly created Secretariat for the Economy.

But Pell returned to Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex charges.

Pope Francis had promised to “spare no effort” to bring to justice pedophile priests and the bishops who covered up their crimes.

He was the first pontiff to publicly admit that priests had also sexually abused nuns and he also abolished the rule of “pontifical secrecy” – a kind of code of confidentiality – in an effort to improve transparency in sexual abuse cases.

Prime Minister pays tribute to late Pope

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously praised Ms Madell as an outstanding candidate.

Mr Albanese, who was raised a Catholic, has also paid tribute to Pope Francis’ kindness, humility and devotion.

“That’s why his loss is being mourned not by just over one billion Catholics around the world but people from all walks of life,’’ he said.

“He was the first Jesuit pope and the first to take the name of that great champion of the poor, St. Francis of Assisi. In the truest sense of the words, he practised what he preached.

“The Holy Father was one of the most consequential leaders of this century and of our lifetime. He was indeed the people’s Pope.

Libs dump candidate

Earlier this month, Peter Dutton was forced to dump his candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam after it emerged he had once claimed the Defence Force “need to remove females from combat corps” in order to “fix” our military.

News.com.au revealed that in a series of fringe podcast interviews before his December preselection for the NSW seat of Whitlam, Benjamin Britton blamed “diversity and equity quotas, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies” for weakening Australia’s defence.

Mr Britton, who served Australia in the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, pointed to the Federal Government’s 2013 decision to lift gender restrictions on frontline combat positions.

The Liberal Party explained that this “this follows a decision to disendorse Benjamin Britton over views expressed which were not previously disclosed and are inconsistent with the party’s position”.

Pope Francis. AFP PHOTO / Alberto PIZZOLI

Mr Britton’s previous comments

Though he had served alongside “tremendous” women in the ADF, Mr Britton told right-wing figure Joel Jammal that “if we’re to fix our defence force, unfortunately, they’re going to need to remove females from combat corps”.

“Their hips are being destroyed because they can’t cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that’s required from doing combat-related jobs,” Mr Britton said in the podcast interview with Jammal last July.

“I knew some of the toughest men I’ve ever met in my life, absolute nails. War left them a shaking mess. Drug addicted. Can’t go outside the house because they have panic attacks.

“If war can do that to them and destroy them, why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females – the ones that are the backbone of your society. Your society only exists because of women … Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?”

Mr Britton unsuccessfully ran for the United Australia Party in the 2022 federal election. Other controversial views he has expressed in the past 12 months included that exposure to pornography was “pushing” young men into “transgender desires”.

He is now running as an independent.

Originally published as ‘Pedos’: Shocking Pope debate on national TV