VIRAL VIDEO: Australian Comic Tim Minchin Urges Catholic Cardinal To Face Child Abuse Inquiry

Over 600K views at this writing. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Comedian Tim Minchin has taken aim at Cardinal George Pell in a provocative song in which he calls Australia’s highest-ranking cleric in the Catholic Church scum, a coward and a pompous buffoon. The musical attack aired on Network Ten’s The Project on Tuesday night and immediately attracted a swell of support from viewers and social media users, despite outrage from The Project co-host Steve Price.

Minchin welcomes legal action from the Cardinal in the musical attack in which he tells Pell to “come home and frickin’ sue me.” Within hours, a crowdfunding page set up to pay for abuse victims to travel to Rome to confront Pell had easily exceeded its target. By 5pm on Wednesday, more than $128,000 [now $193K] had been raised via the GoFundMe page, set up by The Project hosts Meshel Laurie and Gorgi Coghlan.

Proceeds from the song, available on iTunes, will also go to the cause. The song had the The Project trending on Twitter in minutes. Cardinal Pell has claimed he is too ill to travel to Australia to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The Cardinal is planning to testify via video link from Rome, where he now manages the Vatican’s finances, on February 29.

Minchin has previously attacked the Catholic Church, most notably with the hilarious Pope Song.

(Tipped by JMG reader Michael)