Andrew Bolt: Final indignity for George Pell should cause shame

A sad secret about the death of Cardinal George Pell can now be revealed — and it exposes the final insult to a great and innocent man.

For a year I’ve kept a secret that infuriated me about the death last year of Cardinal George Pell – the final insult to a great and innocent man.

I’d promised not to reveal it to spare Pell’s grieving family.

But one line in an article in The Australian on Wednesday, and a call to Pell’s brother, leaves me now free to say what I learned – or most of it.

It’s this line, in a story on the financial scandals that Pell as the reforming Vatican treasurer was exposing until he was falsely, bizarrely and conveniently accused of abusing two boys at once in an open room in his busy cathedral: “Rumours have swirled around the Holy See for months that Pell’s body was left in post-autopsy disarray and not been properly dressed sparking further concerns about his last hours.”

After his death, Pell’s body had been treated with great disrespect. Picture: Getty Images

I don’t buy conspiracy theories about Pell’s death, but I do know about the state of his body after the Vatican sent it to Australia for burial.

In Rome, some mourners had been surprised that Pell’s body was not shown there in an open coffin.

When his body later arrived in Sydney, a Pell confidant at the opening of the coffin could see why not.

The body had been treated with gross disrespect.

Perhaps it was incompetence, but some of Pell’s closest associates told me they suspect it could be a sign that some in the Vatican had not forgiven Pell for hunting down corruption.

In Rome, some mourners had been surprised that Pell’s body was not shown there in an open coffin. Picture: AFP

After reading the Australian I rang Pell’s brother, David, to check what he knew of what had been done to the Cardinal’s body.

It turns out he had learned many of the details, despite our attempts to shield him.

“The embalming had been mucked up,” he said.

The undertaker in Sydney had to clean the body.

Pell’s nose was also broken. I’ll leave out some other details.

Pell was also shoeless, said David Pell.

In fact, I’d been told he wasn’t just shoeless – Pell’s clothes had been just thrown in the coffin.

Outwardly, the Vatican did Pell full honours at his death, with a packed service at St Peter’s, attended by the Pope. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

It is true that, outwardly, the Vatican did Pell full honours at his death, with a packed service at St Peter’s, attended by the Pope.

For all his media haters in Australia, Pell remains admired by many around the world as a true man of God, a reformer, a leader and a man persecuted for his faith, falsely jailed for 404 days.

But the Vatican should be ashamed to have treated his body so shabbily.

Pell once told me he did not feel safe in the Vatican as he chased the crooks, some since sentenced to jail.

What was done to him after death makes me suspect he was right.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Final indignity for George Pell should cause shame