Adelaide’s new Catholic Archbishop Patrick O’Regan says George Pell should ‘gracefully retire’
As he takes up his new role as the head of the Catholic Church in Adelaide, Archbishop Patrick O'Regan says Cardinal George Pell should “gracefully retire” from holding any formal roles in the institution.
SA News
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Adelaide’s new Archbishop Patrick O’Regan believes controversial Cardinal George Pell should step aside from any formal role within the Catholic Church.
Bishop O’Regan, who will be installed at Adelaide’s ninth Archbishop at a pared-back ceremony at St Francis Xavier Cathedral on Monday, said although there was a “real sense of hope’’ about a new start within the Catholic community, there had been too much focus on one individual.
“I think he (Cardinal Pell) should just gracefully retire, yes,’’ O’Regan said in an interview in this week’s SA Weekend magazine cover story - live tonight at 9.30pm.
Cardinal Pell was convicted twice of child sexual abuse before the High Court found there was “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof’’.
Following the High Court decision, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse released a previously redacted portion of its report which found the Cardinal had been made aware of paedophile priests and covered it up. Cardinal Pell issued a statement claiming the Commission’s finding was “not supported by the evidence’’.
Bishop O’Regan said the Royal Commission had been a “blessing in lots of ways’’ for the Catholic Church, even though it had uncovered many terrible stories of horrific abuse.
“There is always a need to purify that and the Royal Commission has been a wonderful wake up, but also an encouragement to keep going in the direction we have been going,’’ he said.
“I think its been helpful because it has allowed us to rediscover something that had been forgotten.
“Let’s get back to this basic kind of thing, our relationship with God, our relationship with one another in the church.’’
Bishop O’Regan was released from two weeks’ isolation on Wednesday after crossing from Victoria. He replaces Archbishop Philip Wilson who resigned from the post almost two years ago. Archbishop Wilson had been convicted on concealing the child sexual abuse by another priest, but that decision was overturned on appeal.
Bishop O’Regan, who has only been to South Australia, a handful of times, said he had no “plan’’ as yet as to how he would carry out the role of Archbishop.
“I don’t have a list of riding instructions from GHQ saying ‘now when you get to Adelaide this is what you have go to do’.’’ he said. “I have moved a lot and my experience is you get there and you have a look, you listen, you earn people’s trust and we work together.’’
Bishop O’Regan will be installed as Archbishop in front of 30 people at St Francis Xavier Cathedral in the city on Monday. The state government has given permission to allow that many people to gather in the Cathedral.