Hear nothing, see nothing – how Pell defined his life in the Church

In a hotel hearing room in Rome six years ago, George Pell gave insight into how he rose to the highest echelons of the Church and society.

Analysis: For a man standing accused of turning a blind eye to the vilest of crimes, George Pell cut an imposing confident figure as he strode into the witness box of a hearing room in central Rome stacked with his accusers.

It was 2016 and the then cardinal wanted to end decades of persistent claims that he helped cover up child abuse by priests under his watch in the late 1980s and 1990s.

For his whole career in the clergy he had refused to discuss such matters openly but agreed to front the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse – albeit remotely from a hotel function room in central Rome – to end the rumours.

Cardinal George Pell in the lobby of the Hotel Quirinale in Rome in 2016 where the royal commission took his evidence. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

It was a defining moment and gave insight to his life and how he rose to the then top of the Catholic Church in Australia and effectively the highest level of the global Roman Curia.

For four days the undeniably articulate and intelligent man was grilled on who he knew, what he knew and how he responded to claims of abuse by others.

Cardinal Pell arrives to Hotel Quirinale in Rome on the third day of the video-link hearing with the Royal Commission. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

The mood in the 170-seat capacity room was electric with a mix of media, some of whom were strong supporters of the then cardinal, more than 20 survivors and their supporters of abuse who had flown from Australia for the hearing and a thong of priests dispatched by the church.

Pell was at most times ambivalent to the point of arrogance as he dismissed all knowledge of abuse, leaving the commissioners and those leading the questioning frustrated and declaring some of his denials implausible.

There were no shock admissions and if he was ever “embattled” as he was often described by the press, he didn’t show it during the at-times hostile hearing laden with tense and terse exchanges.

His life, Pell said, was filled with “unfortunate coincidences”, deceptions and misunderstandings and while there was evidence there were paedophile priests around him it was for others to resolve.

Italian newspapers carrying stories about Cardinal Pell in Rome. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

“It was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” he said at one stage when he said he had heard about child abuse. Much of his responses in that hotel hearing were followed by audible gasps from the crowd either live or from Australia via the streamed hearing.

He would later admit the Catholic Church had scandalously dismissed a catalogue of complaints of child abuse to protect the institution of shame but he himself had never done anything wrong and the church today was different.

It would be a claim he would repeat when he was later himself accused of child abuse, for which he was acquitted.