On December the 18th, 2019, in his prison journal, Cardinal George Pell wrote “Our suffering is God’s pruning …… no pruning means little fruit.”
6 days later on Xmas Eve, the Cardinal went on to a quote about Xmas by Saint Edith Stein (pictured above), which had been sent to him from Ravensburg, Germany:
“In front of the crib you are connected to all those who are scattered all over the world and beyond. That’s a comforting secret.”
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Stein’s saintly name) was a nurse, teacher and philosopher, who died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz in 1942:
Some things like people, childhood and babies do not thrive with pruning.
Perhaps Hitler’s “final solution”, a.k.a. the Holocaust, is proof of that
Whatever human pruning may or may not be necessary is best left to God.
All life is sacred.
Geoff Fox, December 18, 2025, Footscray, Australia
THE CRUCIFIED CARDINAL 