“Justice must be allowed to run its course,” in connection with child abuse charges levelled in Australia at Cardinal George Pell, who has headed the Vatican’s Secretariat of the Economy since 2014, according to Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher.
Maintaining that the cardinal is entitled to the presumption of innocence while the “impartial pursuit of justice” continues, Dr Fisher said relentless character attacks on the cardinal had stood “the principle of innocent-until-proven-guilty on its head”. Even churchmen, he said, “have a right to a ‘fair go’”.
The archbishop’s comments came against reports that the Director of Public Prosecutions had advised Victoria Police about its investigation into Cardinal Pell and the publication of Louise Milligan’s Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell.