“George Pell’s death symbolises the demise of a church out of touch and out of time” by Francis Sullivan

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An article written by Francis Sullivan for The Guardian, published on 12 January 2023

A link to the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/jan/12/george-pells-death-symbolises-the-demise-of-a-church-out-of-touch-and-out-of-time

A Few Comments by JJ Brits

  • The death of Cardinal George Pell on 10 Jan 2023 was controversial here in Australia, with strong and polarizing views expressed as the news of the passing of Australia’s most senior (and most famous) catholic broke
    • There was quite predictably high praise from the religious right, while they also lamented all the “hateful” responses to his death
    • The Labor Premier of the State of Victoria (Dan Andrews) announced emphatically that Victoria will not hold a state memorial service for George Pell. He also added the following for victims and survivors of sexual abuse “We see you, we believe you, we support you and you’re at the centre of not only our thoughts, not only our words, but our actions” [https://www.9news.com.au/national/george-pell-death-daniel-andrews-very-clear-that-george-pell-will-not-get-a-state-memorial-service/c86c6313-9ff6-4cae-bcf5-8088ebaf3c5b]
    • The Liberal Premier of New South Wales (Dominic Perrottet, a conservative catholic) confirmed that there also won’t be a state funeral for Pell in Sydney (where he will be buried at the St Mary’s Cathedral crypt)
    • I’m sharing this article from The Guardian, because I think Francis Sullivan nailed it, and not only with the headline

  • Cardinal Pell died in the Vatican, but spent 13 months of a 6-year sentence in the Barwon prison outside Melbourne from March 2019 to April 2020
    • He was unanimously found guilty in 2018 by a jury of 12 people on 5 charges of child sex abuse on 2 choir boys in 1996 and 1997, shortly after he became the Archbishop of Melbourne
    • They deliberated for 5 days to reach this unanimous verdict
    • He appealed to the Victorian Appeals Court. A majority of this Appeals Court dismissed his appeal, but one of the judges wrote a detailed dissenting opinion that there was clearly reasonable doubt on all charges
    • His appeal then went to the Australian High Court, where it was upheld unanimously: “The High Court found that the jury, acting rationally on the whole of the evidence, ought to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt with respect to each of the offences for which he was convicted, and ordered that the convictions be quashed and that verdicts of acquittal be entered in their place”. Their full 26-page decision can be found here: https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2020/hca-12-2020-04-07.pdf
    • This led to his release from jail after 13 months on 7 April 2020
    • The Australian High Court is not as partisan or as conservative as the US Supreme Court. It also has a very sound reputation

  • Conclusion:
    • The fact that the High Court quashed his conviction does not mean that George Pell was innocent, it only means that despite all the evidence there was still reasonable doubt left about his guilt of sexual abuse
    • There is also plenty of reason to be suspicious that he possibly abused these boys
    • Regardless of whether George Pell personally participated in the widespread sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church, the wider issue is his role as a senior church leader in this scandal
    • Although Australia was by no means the epicentre of Catholic child abuse, it was/is still a widespread problem here, which prompted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
      • It was a thorough and comprehensive investigation into a “national tragedy”
      • This Royal commission lasted for 5 years from May 2013 to November 2017, unearthed large-scale evidence of sexual abuse and institutional cover ups
      • Their full official report was published in 2017 and can be found here. It consists of 17 volumes and an Executive Summary (which alone is a 227-page document): https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report
      • Regarding George Pell, the Royal Commission also tabled more than 100 previously redacted pages from their report to parliament on 7 May 2020. In total they heard a large amount of evidence that he was well aware of sexual abuse in the church throughout most of his career, that he was involved in some abuse, that he was involved in moving paedophile priests between parishes (including Gerald Ridsdale, see directly below) and that he did not take appropriate action to protect children. They also rejected some of his own evidence claiming no knowledge of anything
      • The example case of Gerald Ridsdale. Ridsdale was one of the most notorious catholic paedophile priests who were convicted and jailed for 36 years for abusing 65 children, some as young as 4. Ridsdale was a personal friend of George Pell, they used to live together and in 1993 George Pell accompanied Ridsdale to court and acted as a character witness for him. The Royal Commission published a large amount of information about Ridsdale and his history of abuse
    • Apart from not protecting the children, the Catholic Church (and George Pell as a senior church leader) followed a strategy to bully victims and placed several obstacles in their way to prevent justice and/or compensation. This led to many recommendations by the Royal Commission for justice and redress
    • George Pell was a hardliner who did not protect vulnerable victims in the Catholic Church. Instead, his priorities were to further his own career and protect the reputation of his church. For these reasons alone I couldn’t agree more with Francis Sullivan that his “death symbolises the demise of a church out of touch and out of time”.
JJ Brits
JJ Britshttps://thecsf.xyz/authors/
JJ runs The CSF as a modest contribution to promote critical thinking, an openly secular lifestyle, and normalizing Secularism, while challenging invalid religious claims and its disproportionate influence. He is based in Australia, and is writing a book on his journey through religion. His primary interest and research focus is Morality, as he is convinced that humanity will have to develop a more rational, tolerant and inclusive morality, in order to survive on our planet. JJ used to be a devout Christian and a qualified Minister of Religion, with a Masters Degree in Theology. He spent two years working on a PhD in Systematic Theology as he contemplated an academic career. These 8 years of full-time studies, seriously looking for answers in Theology, Philosophy, History and Science, led him to leave religion and his career, as the Christian scripture, dogmas, claims and history could not hold up to rational scrutiny.

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