Leaders lacked courage on Pell
As a reflection of the cowardice that tends to afflict members of our political class, it would be hard to go past the non-appearance of Anthony Albanese, Dominic Perrottet and other political figures at George Pell’s funeral in Sydney on Thursday. Given their offices, both men should have been there. Their claims about prior commitments that could not be changed don’t wash. They added to perceptions they have allowed themselves to fall in behind Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s hostile view of the cardinal.
As Sydney Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher said, Pell was “the most influential churchman in our nation’s history”. He was a great Australian. He was a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), our country’s highest award. His memory deserved better than little-known ministerial stand-ins sent to represent the Prime Minister and NSW Premier. So did the many Australians of all faiths and none – Catholic and non-Catholic, Christian and non-Christian – who saw through the manifestly erroneous claims about the cardinal disseminated by the ABC and preferred, instead, the unanimous conclusion of all seven judges of the High Court of Australia. The court ruled in April 2020 against his conviction on the child sex charges Victoria Police brought against him.
In deciding not to attend the funeral mass, Mr Albanese and Mr Perrottet – who were both raised as Catholics, with Mr Albanese attending St Mary’s Cathedral College in Sydney – appeared to be cowed by woke, politically correct opinion that took a consistently negative view of the cardinal, who dared to question what he called the undemanding “quasi religion’’ of extreme climate change measures and defend traditional education programs in Western civilisation.
Former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott declined to be bullied by the malice of the Pell critics. Nor was Peter Dutton. As Mr Abbott said in his tribute, the cardinal was instrumental in the creation of three centres of high learning – ACU, Notre Dame University and Campion College, perhaps his favourite, dedicated to the liberal arts and giving students a good grounding in the great books and great debates that have shaped our civilisation and its greatest cultural and social achievements. He was, Mr Abbott said, “the very best of us’’. He made friends with the homeless in Sydney and used to give a homeless man who regularly visited his street in Rome ‘‘a few bob’’. For the record, Cardinal Pell described himself as a “political agnostic’’ who had voted both ways in his time.
As Archbishop Fisher said, many people found him a “polarising” figure. That is not surprising given his strength of character, the power of his intellect and the eminence he achieved not just in Australia but globally within the top echelons of the Vatican, setting foundations for desperately needed financial reform.
Those qualities were worth the time of more elected leaders, surely, to turn up and acknowledge. A state memorial service for Olivia Newton-John on February 26 was announced on Thursday – a worthy tribute to another great Australian who was also awarded our highest honour, like Pell, becoming a Companion of the Order of Australia. The cardinal had no need of a state funeral. The mass and vespers the previous night were moving, magnificent and thought provoking.
It is a pity, however, that even in death and despite the unequivocal judgment of all seven judges of the High Court of Australia, the cardinal continues to evoke the sort of mindless and unfounded vituperation shown by some protesters outside St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday. His memory and that of all people of faith in Australia, Catholic and non-Catholic, deserves better than prominent political leaders’ weak-kneed unwillingness to be seen attending the funeral. In the end, however, it did not matter. The vast cathedral was packed. But Australia needs strong leaders prepared, as Cardinal Pell was, to stand their ground against senseless intimidation.