Chai Brady
Cardinal Pell The conviction of Australian Cardinal George Pell of sex abuse sent shockwaves across the Church and around the world, but his acquittal by the country’s highest court this week, vindicating the prelate of all convictions, has heightened criticism of how his case was treated
The former Vatican treasurer walked free from jail after convictions relating to sexually assaulting two teenage choirboys in the 1990s were quashed.
Cardinal Pell was charged by police in June 2017. Following an initial trial that lasted for four weeks last August and September that resulted in a hung jury, a second trial last November resulted in a unanimous guilty verdict.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Irish priest Fr Brendan Purcell, who is based in Sydney and has known Cardinal Pell for 20 years, criticised the police who dealt with his case and said there was a “media campaign” against him.
Commenting on the “incredible bias of the media”, Fr Purcell said “they never liked Cardinal Pell which is fair enough”.
“But they were very much part of the story in Victoria, he wasn’t able to get a trial by just judges alone which in Ireland they are used for things like IRA cases where the jury could be got at or messed around with, so effectively from being more or less let off in the first trial, the jury then were unanimous the second time around.”
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“So many people have been victims of media campaigns against Cardinal Pell, it’s hard to find anyone who didn’t have an opinion about him.”
The reverse decision comes after Cardinal Pell was convicted in a jury trial in December 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison last March. His appeal to the Supreme Court of Victoria was rejected last August in a 2-1 ruling upholding his original conviction.
Cardinal Pell had spent over 400 days in prison before his release, with Fr Purcell saying he had visited the cardinal in prison in January and he was “in good form”.
“He lived doing penance for many mistakes the Australian church has made, I think he accepted that he was in a sense a victim, but nonetheless suffering for the Australian Church,” Fr Purcell said.
“He called it a retreat, he wasn’t speaking of anger or vengeance. He was in great form, he was in prison garb, reading and writing away, not wasting time.”
Regarding the decision by the Supreme Court, Fr Purcell said: “It was a justification of the Australian justice system, just in time, because it was just a disaster up to now.
“It doesn’t matter whether people like Pell or not, the fact is he should be judged on the merits of the case and this particular case seemed to me it had no merits.”
Fr Purcell said he had lived with Cardinal Pell for a number of years and is “very fond of him”, saying he was a “wonderful person to live with”.
He won’t be able to walk the streets of Melbourne because of the ‘hatewaves’”
“Obviously it was an incredible shock to see him accused of these things. Most accusations as we all know tragically have been true,” he said.
“But yet I’ve known one very painful case of a priest in my own class in Dublin who was falsely accused and several priests here who I’ve known personally have been falsely accused, and the accusations where shown to be so.
“Some accusations are not true. And I will certainly say that this particular accusation against Cardinal Pell wasn’t true so in that sense I’m so glad for him.”
It’s believed Cardinal Pell will now go on retreat during Holy Week to a convent in Melbourne.
Fr Purcell added: “He certainly won’t be able to walk the streets of Melbourne because the ‘hatewaves’ are so strong. He’s already a very marked man.”