Pell’s life of dedication served church and state

Cartoon: John Spooner

George Pell was not the kind of character who would want to be canonised in print or anywhere else this side of heaven. Wary of flattery, he always rejected suggestions he would make a good pope: “A bit of form on a few country racetracks isn’t enough for the Melbourne Cup,” he’d tell wellwishers.

Being Australian to the proverbial bootstraps, he would expect his legacy to receive a fair go, however. That legacy was significant and longstanding, for the nation as well as for the Catholic Church he served faithfully for 56 years as a priest, bishop and cardinal following his ordination in St Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in December 1966.

His sudden death from a cardiac arrest shortly after a hip replacement operation in the Salvator Mundi hospital in Rome, 11 days after the death of his friend Benedict XVI, was a shock but not a surprise in light of his medical history. Cardinal Pell, 81, had been busy and well in the lead-up to his operation, attending the late pope’s funeral, giving interviews about Benedict’s life and work, and spending time with brother cardinals and Australian friends who were in Rome.

He knew Benedict well. In 1990, keen to strengthen the theological and intellectual rigour of the influential Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, of which he was prefect, the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger invited the young bishop Pell, recently consecrated as an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, to join. He was the first Australian afforded the honour.

Like Benedict, Pell, who was promoted to the rank of cardinal in 2003 under Pope John Paul II, one of his church heroes, was a firm believer in doctrinal orthodoxy and unity within the church. He was also a stickler for the importance of religion in the public square, in Australia and across the world. Serving as the archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001 and the archbishop of Sydney from 2001 to 2014 – the only church leader to have occupied both offices – Cardinal Pell, who classed himself as a “political agnostic”, became an abiding presence in national conversations.

Never a shrinking violet, he was sometimes controversial, speaking on a variety of issues – from AIDS, the LGBTI agenda and wokeness undermining education, to the dangers of what he regarded as the racist undertones of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Mark I in the mid-1990s. An ardent opponent of cancel culture and virtue signalling, he was an unashamed climate change sceptic, noting last year that the green movement had the characteristics of “a low level, not too demanding, pseudo-religion”. He was also, in line with church teaching, a strong opponent of abortion and euthanasia but active in organising support services for those in difficult situations.

While always on the side of underdogs economically, he drew a sharp line between church and state on matters that belong with Caesar rather than God. While some church figures opposed the Howard government’s GST along social justice lines, for example, Pell argued there should be no single church position on the matter. He was personally generous and big-hearted in advocating greater assistance to the poor and needy. But, equally important, he was economically rational in insisting that the money be well managed and spent. He learned those lessons the hard way, overseeing the Catholic Church’s overseas relief funding for nine years as a junior bishop from 1987 to 1996. That work took him to Cambodia, rebuilding after Pol Pot; Africa; and earthquake and cyclone-ravaged zones and refugee camps. The job also forced him to confront communist infiltration of aid work in The Philippines. At times it was necessary to get tough, to turn off the aid tap and ensure the money was spent as donors had intended. It took years, but the mess was sorted, which was good training for his later work tackling the corrupt, arcane labyrinth of Vatican finances. Pell’s travels as a bishop, including to China, where he directly encountered and assisted the underground church, shaped his view of Australia and what mattered most politically. Upholding democratic values, free speech and good economic management and defending the traditional family were among his political priorities, irrespective of political affiliations. He had friends across the political spectrum, and maintained good relationships with other churches and non-Christian religious groups, including Jews and Muslims.

Asked in 2014 about his legacy in Australia as he was preparing to leave Sydney to work at the Vatican, Cardinal Pell, without hesitation, nominated the “young priests” who had studied and joined the priesthood during his revival of seminary training in Sydney and Melbourne. For those outside the church, however, it is Pell’s legacy as a builder that will endure for generations. In the 1980s, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Australian Catholic University, founded across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT. As archbishop of Sydney, he took a leading role in establishing Notre Dame University in our most populous city, with the nation’s first Catholic medical school. He was also a long-time backer of Campion College, a liberal arts college west of Parramatta. It was always close to his heart as “a bright example of political incorrectness”, he told last year’s fundraising dinner, and for its dedication to the study of Western civilisation and the fusing of the traditions of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome. He was the holder of an Oxford doctorate in history and the former head of the Ballarat Catholic teachers’ college, and education and the importance of improving standards of teaching were among his main interests.

As with many church leaders of his era, in Australia and overseas, it is impossible to separate Cardinal Pell’s legacy from the heinous crime of child sexual abuse, which has overshadowed much of the humanitarian and other good work of the Catholic and other churches. For many years the responses initiated by the churches and other bodies, including sporting and social organisations, were woefully inadequate. After years of revelations about wicked crimes and harrowing testimonies by victims to public inquiries, church leaders finally recognised the past failings to protect children.

In Melbourne as archbishop, Pell was responsible for bringing in the so-called “Melbourne Response” to child abuse allegations against the church. It was one of the first formal church processes in the world for dealing with such abuse. The protocol, headed by an independent Queen’s Counsel, was described by victim support group Broken Rites as “the best of a bad lot’’. But it was also criticised as being too protective of the church because victims received compensation that was considered too small and promised not to sue the church. It was also said to compel their silence in return for compensation.

It was ironic that Cardinal Pell himself later became the subject of historical sex abuse claims and was initially found guilty by a jury of abusing two boys in the Melbourne Cathedral. It was a verdict that did not stand.

The unanimous decision by the High Court of Australia in April 2020 to quash five child sexual abuse convictions against Cardinal Pell, for which he served 13 months in Victorian jails, largely in solitary confinement, was an emphatic verdict rooted in evidence, judicial precedents and the law. As the court said, 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”. That fundamental standard is beyond reasonable doubt, and the court’s reasoning was clear, dispassionate and detailed. The court overturned two verdicts – that of a jury trial before the County Court of Victoria in December 2018 and a later split decision by the Court of Appeal of Victoria. The dissenting decision in the latter case by Justice Mark Weinberg, one of Australia’s most experienced jurists in criminal matters, argued that Pell’s conviction “cannot be permitted to stand” because there was a significant possibility that the cardinal was innocent. The High Court agreed. It was a significant vindication for Cardinal Pell, who said in a statement at the time that he did not want his acquittal to add “to the hurt and bitterness so many feel”.

The matter also raised significant questions about Victorian justice. One was why police launched the “get Pell” Operation Tethering in 2013, reportedly before they had received any complaint against him. The police strategy of effectively touting for complaints about the cardinal in the media was incredible. Then came the charges. Anybody familiar with cathedrals on Sundays knew the improbability of anybody having the chance to abuse two children in the sacristy after mass. In 2017, we reported the state’s Office of Public Prosecutions twice returned briefs of evidence on the case to Victoria Police, which made the call to charge the cardinal. As Paul Kelly wrote, state power was “recruited in an effort to destroy Pell. This situation cannot be swept under the carpet.”

Pell entered seminary training. somewhat reluctantly, in early 1960, turning down the chance to play for the Richmond Tigers or pursue a lucrative career in law or medicine. The ensuing decades were ones of dedication, bravery and hard work. From his schooldays to his final years, he sensed a strong vocation to do the work of God. No other Australian church leader ever flew as high, or as much (literally), or earned the same profile. He had a rare capacity for friendship, from beggars on his street in Rome to royalty, Australian prime ministers to students. May his soul rest in peace.