Big, big, big. It would be hard to get a more lurid tale than The Times article, republished in The Australian, that declares:

Italian media have reported that Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, 72, is suspected of wiring the cash to recipients in Australia who helped to ensure hostile testimony in the abuse trial of Cardinal George Pell, who was accused of molesting choir boys in Melbourne in the 1990s…

Borgias still walk among us, or so it appears.

The SMAge has taken the story forward. Pell is treading on Twitter, too. But it’s strange, given all the space they devoted to claims against Cardinal Pell over the years, the ABC hasn’t seen fit to report on such an extraordinary story, or so a check of their website at 7.45 pm this evening suggests. Take a look. Their most recent reporting on His Eminence is so stale that if it came from the kitchen it would be in the compost bin by now.

No doubt they’ll blame the strange omission on Coalition funding cuts.