By JOHN YOUNG
SYNDEY, Australia — “I hope George Pell has been sufficiently weakened by the prison he deserved to spend the rest of his miserable life in and now dies slowly and painfully from COVID 19.” That was the response tweeted by feminist Clementine Ford when the High Court of Australia unanimously acquitted George Cardinal Pell of all the charges against him. (Quote reported by The Catholic Weekly, Sydney, April 13, 2020.)
That was one of the more extreme reactions, but it illustrates the bigotry manifested by a significant number of commentators and others. And later they got more ammunition for their attacks when the redacted section of the Royal Commission report on sexual abuse was made public.
The Commission was established to investigate sexual offenses against children in both public and religious facilities. But for some reason the Commission ignored government facilities and concentrated on religious bodies – especially the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Pell in Rome was questioned over several sessions totaling about 20 hours. The questioning was quite aggressive. That was before he was charged with any offenses. The Commission’s findings in his regard, now made public, have provided his opponents with fresh ammunition.
A Royal Commission is not equivalent to a trial, and lacks the safeguards of a trial. Cardinal Pell had no opportunity to defend himself, and didn’t even know what conclusions the Commission had reached. And now that the conclusions have been made public any fair-minded person should see how flimsy they are.
Cardinal Pell was questioned by the Commission as to what he knew, in 1982, about the activities of Fr. Gerald Ridsdale, a priest in the Ballarat Diocese in the State of Victoria, who was found guilty, years later, of numerous sexual offenses against boys. At the time, the then Fr. Pell was a priest in that diocese and was a member of the College of Consulters of the diocese.
The crucial question concerned a meeting of the Consulters where the bishop of the diocese, Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, advised the members that Fr. Ridsdale was to be moved from his parish. The Royal Commission, so many years later, concluded that Pell knew from that meeting that Ridsdale had sexually assaulted boys, even though he testified on oath before the Commission that he had been unaware of this.
The Commission’s conclusion was completely unwarranted. Other priests who were present at that meeting in 1982 testified that Bishop Mulkearns had not stated sexual assault of boys as the reason he was moving Ridsdale. He had kept the reason to himself.
This was completely in keeping with the secretive nature of Bishop Mulkearn’s methods: He kept knowledge secret if it was likely to damage the reputation of the Church. Not only that, but had he admitted to the priests at the meeting that he was failing to take action against the criminal activity of Ridsdale he could have found himself in serious trouble.
Despite the lack of evidence, the Commission concluded that Pell would have known what Ridsdale was, and therefore that he had lied on oath before the Commission. This delighted bigoted sections of the media, who published a photograph of Cardinal Pell taking the oath when he testified before the Commission.
The other main claim that the Commission considered justified was that, when he was auxiliary bishop of Melbourne, Pell failed to deal with complaints against Fr. Peter Searson, a notorious sex offender. But here too the Commission was unjust.
A delegation of teachers from a Catholic school arranged a meeting with Bishop Pell to discuss complaints about Searson. According to Pell in his evidence before the Royal Commission, the delegation of teachers did not give him detailed information of Searson’s long history of inappropriate behavior.
Bishop Pell did know that Searson denied the allegations. Nor did the teachers ask for his removal. Even so, Bishop Pell passed on the teachers’ concerns to the archbishop of Melbourne, Frank Little, and to the vicar general of the archdiocese.
The Royal Commission found that Bishop Pell had not taken effective action in the matter. But that criticism is grossly unfair. Not only was he unaware of the seriousness of Searson’s behavior but he had no authority to take action. That responsibility belonged to Archbishop Little.
However, when Pell became archbishop of Melbourne he did take action: He promptly removed Searson from ministry. And he did much more. He established the Melbourne Response in 1996. This was one of the first and best responses in the world to deal with the whole question of sexual abuse in Church institutions.
As archbishop of Melbourne Pell was responsible for over 30 priests ceasing ministry.
The reality is that, not only are the accusations unjust, but of all the Australian bishops he is the one who did most to deal with the scandal of sexual abuse by priests.
The shocking extent to which the truth has been suppressed is indicated in a petition circulated by a victim of clerical abuse. The petition states: “Pell allowed Gerald Risdale and others to continue to abuse children in their care for decades by simply moving them around to continue abusing.”
That statement is utterly false and was never part of the legal charges or the conclusions of the Royal Commission. He had no power to move anyone around until he became archbishop of Melbourne! Yet within a few days 76,000 people had signed that petition!
A Perverse Minority
This situation has come about because Cardinal Pell has stood for the truth and fought against errors. Powerful figures in our corrupt society, whether in politics, law, the media, have found him a threat and alien to their worldview.
He has preached the truth and has opposed the murder of preborn babies, the destruction of marriage, and the promotion of homosexual behavior. He is even a global warming skeptic!
The man who has done more than any other Australian bishop to fight sexual abuse in the Church is condemned as the one most notorious in condoning abuse.
A perverse minority, but with great power, will continue to blacken his character.
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