The Dispatch: More from CWR...

‘The culture wars are real,’ Cardinal Pell says in new interview

“There is a systematic attempt to remove the Judeo-Christian legal foundations [on for example] marriage, life, gender, sex.”

Cardinal George Pell is pictured in a screen grab during an interview that aired April 14 on Sky News Australia. (CNS screen grab)

CNA Staff, Apr 14, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Cardinal George Pell has said culture wars and anti-Catholic sentiment could have played a part in the decision of Victoria police to pursue charges against him, even while they lacked supportive evidence of the allegations in his case.

Cardinal Pell described Victoria police as having “advertised for business” against him in an April 14 interview with Sky News Australia. Pell was asked about the decision by Victoria police to launch an open-ended investigation into him, despite having received no complaints of a crime.

The interview was Pell’s first televised appearance since his release last week after more than 400 days in prison. On the evidence of a single accuser, Pell was convicted in December 2018 of sexually assaulting two choirboys at the Melbourne Cathedral in 1996.

On April 7, the Australian High Court unanimously ruled that the evidence presented during the trial would not have allowed the jury to avoid reasonable doubt and ordered Pell’s acquittal and release.

On the day of his release, Pell told CNA that “The only basis for long term healing is truth and the only basis for justice is truth, because justice means truth for all.”

Pell spoke with Sky News’ Andrew Bolt about the decision by local police to bring 28 allegations of sexual abuse against him, only to see 27 of them dropped before reaching court. The remaining allegation resulted in Pell’s conviction by a Victoria jury and eventual acquittal by the High Court.

Asked directly if he thought police were “out to get” him, Pell said he did not know.

“I don’t know how you explain it, but it is certainly extraordinary,” Pell said.

Asked if he thought there was an anti-Catholic bias at work in the decision of police to charge him and by judges at the Victoria Court of Appeal to sustain his conviction, despite the evidence which eventually led to his exoneration, Pell said it was a possibility.

“I’ve seen too many people [make the leap] from possible to probable to fact. Certainly, people do not like Christians who teach Christianity, especially on life and family and issues like that.”

“The culture wars are real,” Pell said. “There is a systematic attempt to remove the Judeo-Christian legal foundations [on for example] marriage, life, gender, sex.”

“Unfortunately, there’s less rational discussion and more playing the man, more abuse and intimidation, and that’s not good for a democracy.”

During the interview, the cardinal was also asked if he believed that there was any connection between his work to reform the Vatican finances during his time as Prefect for the Economy and the emergence of charges against him in Victoria.

“Most of the senior people in Rome who are in any way sympathetic to financial reform believe that they are [connected]. But I have seen too much from people, as I said, going to possibility to probability to fact – I don’t have any evidence of that.”

“But one of my fears was that what we had done [to reform the Vatican finances] would remain hidden for ten years or so, and they’d would be revealed and the baddies would say ‘Well, Pell and Casey [Pell’s chief advisor] were in charge then, they turned a blind eye and did nothing to it.’”

“Thanks be to God all that’s gone, because there was a flurry of articles just before Christmas exposing all sorts of things like a disastrous purchase – actually a couple of them – in London, and it was very clearly demonstrated that we tenaciously opposed those things.”

“What we were pushing and saying has been massively vindicated,” Pell said. “Now you can see why they sacked the auditor [Libero Milone], why they got rid of the external auditors.”

Asked how high up in the curial hierarchy financial corruption goes, Pell said “Who knows? It’s a little bit like [anti-Catholicism] in Victoria, you’re not quite sure where the vein runs, how thick and broad it is, and how high it goes.”

But the cardinal also made clear that, in financial reforming efforts, Pope Francis had “absolutely” supported him and that “at the feet of the pope we’ve got Cardinal [Pietro] Parolin, he’s certainly not corrupt. Just how high up [the corruption goes] is an interesting hypothesis.”

Pell said that despite the difficulties he faced in prison, where he was held in solitary confinement for much of the time for his own safety, he bore no anger towards his accuser.

“I’ve got no anger, no hostility towards my complainant, I never have,” said Pell.

“I am called to forgive what happened to me that might have been a little unjust, and there is this heroic Christian call to forgiveness in the most appalling circumstances.”

But, Pell said, he had no hesitation in condemning the terrible scandal of sexual abuse in the Church.

“I totally condemn those sorts of activities [of abuse] and the damage that it has done to people – and I have seen the damage that it has done to people.”

“One of the things that grieves me is the suggestion that I’m anti-victim or not sufficiently sympathetic. I devoted a lot of time and energy to trying to get [victims] justice, and to get them help and compensation.”

Pell noted that as archbishop in the 1990s he set up the Melbourne Response to deal with sexual abuse in the Church and bringing about justice and compensation for victims.

“I worked hard,” Pell said, “when it wasn’t easy or fashionable, to get something in place – not run by clerics – that would give some protection and redress to these people, and I have worked consistently at that since at least the middle 90s.”

The cardinal said he had kept the same routine while in prison that, as a bishop, he had often urged on priests who found themselves “in a bit of trouble;” getting up early and at a set time, praying, exercising, and eating well.

“If you can’t pray when you are in trouble, your faith is very weak indeed.”

Asked if he had ever asked God, in the words of Christ on the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” Pell responded “No.”

“But I have said ‘My God, my God, what are you up to?’”

“One of the strangest teachings about Christianity – and the most useful – is that you can offer up your suffering,” Pell said. “Suffering is not just a brute fact. A Christian can offer that up to the Good God.”


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Catholic News Agency 10102 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

11 Comments

  1. ““I’ve got no anger, no hostility towards my complainant, I never have,” said Pell.”

    I’ve got plenty of anger and hostility towards the complainant, and against anybody else who makes false accusations.

    • I’m with you on that, Leslie. TRUE Catholics are not one-sided cartoons. Neither was/is Jesus. He roared like the Lion of Judah when he kicked the merchants out of the Temple (twice according to some scholars) and He was the Lamb of God during His Passion. He showed both sides all the time during His life on Earth, because BOTH sides are ONE, and there’s no split or contradiction ever between them!!

      Cardinal Pell has adopted a very forgiving, non-accusatory attitude and that’s providentially perfect to counter his foaming-in-the-mouth accusers, who are projecting their OWN delirious evil face on him. BUT, if he didn’t have the Lion of Judah in his heart, he would have folded and melted like butter in an Australian desert, and confessed to a heinous crime he never committed.

      Mother Theresa of Calcutta worked among the poorest of the poor, the dying, etc. and, at the same time, took the chance to tell Bill and Hillary Clinton to their faces that the abortion they worship is a crime, not bowing down to them and not worrying about how their worldwide political tentacles could have suffocated her holy work. Like Jesus, we True Catholics are not one-sided, pacifist cartoons; you know, the ones Satan loves SO much because they help him SO much.

      • ” Like Jesus, we True Catholics ” but Jesus was a Jew. Why aren’t you Jewish like him? What’s the difference between a True and a False Catholic and do the False Catholics know they are not true Catholics

  2. I don’t think forgiveness is optional for Christians, it’s required.
    Righteous anger against injustice is another thing entirely.

  3. Quote — “I totally condemn those sorts of activities [of abuse] and the damage that it has done to people – and I have seen the damage that it has done to people.” and “I wasn’t much bothered about it”.

  4. Our Church is under attack, i believe that ABC news had an agenda and were allowed to pursue due to the anger directed at the Church for the abuse of a minority of priests and nuns.
    His Eminence in harbouring no animosity follows Pope Jean Paul II in showing the world forgiveness to people who seek to harm.
    The Church is under attacked but bounces back with love and dignity.

  5. Cardinal Pell, I have so much admiration for your Christ-like example.
    You have distilled the entire message of the Gospel by submitting you will to the will of God and forgiving openly your enemies. You are a true Priest and I will be forever grateful for your presence and example in our lives.
    Our lives are simply to follow the Lord
    Gratefully

  6. Remember the Prophet Daniel and those that slandered him? Well we know what happened to them and their families,them poor old lions won’t hungry no more were they?

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. ‘The culture wars are real,’ Cardinal Pell says in new interview - Catholic Mass Search

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*