Cardinal Pell The incarcerated Cardinal George Pell is facing an investigation by Australian prison authorities, after images of a letter he sent to supporters were posted on social media.
Pictures of the two-page letter were posted on Twitter last Friday by the ‘Cardinal Pell Supporters’ account. According to Australian prison regulations, inmates are not permitted to access social media, or to enjoin others to make social media posts on their behalf.
The incident comes as Pell’s legal team prepare to receive a decision from a Court of Appeal on his appeal of his conviction on five counts of child sexual abuse in December last year.
It is understood that his legal team is preparing for a decision as early as this week and that, while they are hopeful of a favourable outcome, “every possibility is being considered, nothing is being taken as read”.
Over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Community Safety in the state of Victoria said the “activity” on the Cardinal Pell Supporters Twitter account would be “thoroughly investigated”.
Supporters
Sources close to the supporters group said that Pell had given no instructions for the letter to be posted on social media, and that the account had recently been deactivated.
In the letter, Pell wrote: “The knowledge that my small suffering can be used for good purposes through being joined to Jesus’ suffering gives me purpose and direction. Challenges and problems in Church life should be confronted in a similar spirit of faith.”
He added that the Church is one, “not just in the sense that good families stick together whatever their differences, but because the Church of Christ is based in the Catholic Church, which constitutes the Body of Christ”.
He also thanked his supporters for their prayers and messages, which he said have brought him “immense consolation, humanly and spiritually”.
Following his conviction in the County Court of Victoria, Pell was sentenced in March to six years in prison, of which he must serve at least three years and eight months. He has remained in prison since that time.
Across two days of hearings on June 5-6, judges from the Supreme Court of Victoria heard Pell’s appeal against the jury’s decision on three separate grounds. Local media coverage broadly reported that the argumentation presented in court appeared to favour Pell.
Many of his supporters say they hope the judges will overturn the jury’s verdict entirely, ruling that no decision of guilt beyond reasonable doubt was possible in the light of the evidence, and setting the cardinal free.
Should the court reject all three grounds and allow the conviction to stand, Pell’s legal team has confirmed that he will not seek to appeal the length of his prison sentence.