George Pell, the public and private colossus

Cardinal George Pell. Picture: Getty Images

George Pell was a dear friend whom I admired and loved for years. But the foundation of those feelings may surprise people.

Certainly, George was highly intelligent and perceptive. His knowledge of history, politics and the Catholic Church was profound. But it was his utterly self-deprecating sense of humour that won me over.

I last spoke to him on the phone at Christmas. Typically, he had rung to wish me and my family well. He told me how proud he was to be getting a new hip, as he would now be all new parts.

I asked him about the need for a brain transplant. “No hope there,” he said. “Clapped out and useless. Hopeless case.”

Hardly the ice-cold, arrogant prince of the church.

He was even better when he came to family lunch or dinner after flying in from Rome. One of my offspring was working for a left-wing union, which was a source of hilarity for the cardinal. He claimed he spent his long flight thinking up anti-union slogans. As he walked through the door, he would exclaim: “And what nefarious new tricks have you devised to suck the very blood of the workers?” When the response came – “Nothing that a broken-down hack of a cleric would understand” – comic battle was joined.

So much for the man described as cold, indifferent and even a sociopath.

The cardinal’s private persona was a warm, funny and caring man. His public presentation could be more challenging.

Frankly, his looks and manner were against him. Once an aspiring Richmond ruckman, he was about eight feet tall and had the bulk of an aircraft carrier. In interviews, he spoke slowly and with great determination in his deep voice. He was not an easy subject, especially for hostile interrogators.

The key to Pell as an intellect and a church leader was an uncompromising commitment to the truth, especially Catholic truth, which he freely would tell anyone, regardless of rank or stature. He was much like his inspiration, St Pope John Paul II. A failure to stand up for truth, however inconvenient, was a failure of the soul. Truth extended through all elements of life, including the political and the social.

Pell bestrode the Australian Catholic Church like a colossus with bad knees for a half-century. The only comparison would be the feisty Daniel Mannix, archbishop of Melbourne, who fought the Hughes government to a standstill on the issue of conscription during World War I.

The cardinal was a great admirer of Mannix but, given the similarity of temperaments, angels may have to separate them during spats.

Pell came to prominence at a time when the Australian church was under attack by general secularists and by modernist bigots. Pell’s duty was to defend it with all his intellect and determination.

He genuinely was God’s soldier, and he was good at it. Regardless of the odds or the cost, he was prepared to fight. This won him not only devoted admirers but many enemies, many of whom have been on the receiving end of his spirited defence.

He could be tough in debate, which did not endear him to his critics. The combination of his physical and intellectual presence could be off-putting to audience as well as combatants. It sometimes gave the impression of disdain and condescension. On some occasions, I was the object of the cardinal’s displeasure. It was not a reassuring experience, though he was not prone to hold a grudge.

Probably his greatest achievement came when Pope Francis put him at the head of the Vatican’s finances. With typical determination he pursued people and practices that were labyrinthine and sometimes corrupt. The forces of darkness eventually blocked him, but the Pope himself is desperately pursuing the Pell agenda. Some of the cardinal’s most vicious critics now face charges.

If ever there is a patron saint of fiscal rectitude, it will be St George the Intransigent. It will be his chief legacy to the world church.

It was the fate of Pell to hold high rank in a church forced to face the horrors of child abuse. With his higher profile and talent for disputation, he was a natural scapegoat. In fact, Pell’s record as a bishop was outstanding. When archbishop of Melbourne he instituted the Australian church’s first systemic approach to child abuse. It was not perfect but it was a start.

Later on, Pell was a moving force behind the establishment of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, the institutional interface between the church and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It is ironic that Pell became the ultimate victim of a child abuse scandal whose perpetrators he despised, along with bishops who had failed in their duties.

Pell’s famous conviction for child abuse was not based on evidence but on a relentless media campaign, allied with an utterly partisan police force, presided over by a judiciary later exploded by a highly critical High Court. Most informed legal opinion was horrified by the initial decision, and the failure of the Victoria Court of Appeal to overrule it.

But Cardinal Pell faced his unjust imprisonment more calmly than his friends or his enemies did. He used it as a time for prayer and spiritual contemplation. He tried to help his fellow prisoners, especially the worst of them. He spent much time praying for his accuser.

He even kept a prison journal, documenting his physical and spiritual experiences. When he told me it was to be published, we both had fears of monotony. In fact it is compelling, touching and instructive. It was more than a personal vindication. It was the expunging of one of the greatest failures of civil liberties and rule of law in our country’s history.

The quashing of his conviction was even more spectacular than the conviction itself. The High Court unanimously declared George Pell not guilty.

Of course, with his death, the usual media desperados will descend on his reputation. Freed from the constraints of defamation law, calumny will be their trademark. It probably will not console them to think that in 100 years no one will remember their names. But the atrocious decision in the Pell case will be taught in every law school, and Pell’s contribution to both the Australian and the world church will be in every Catholic textbook.

God be with you and God bless you, my dear friend.

Greg Craven is emeritus professor of law and former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University. He wrote a court reference for George Pell after the cardinal’s conviction.