The wrongful conviction of Cardinal Pell

We live in sad times. I lost my faith in the institutional Church years ago. The systemic cover up of crimes and the enabling of predator priests is beyond the pale. If I didn’t have a supernatural outlook and focus on Christ himself, there is no way I’d persevere with the knaves and scoundrels who shame him.

Now, sadly, I have also lost faith in the Australian judicial system. It’s not that Cardinal Pell didn’t commit the crimes of which he is convicted. It’s that Cardinal Pell couldn’t commit those crimes. But such is the vitriol levelled against Australia’s most famous Catholic prelate, it wasn’t possible to field a jury of twelve peers who could judge the facts without prejudice.

This wrongful conviction is the culmination of Australia’s long history of anti-Catholic sectarianism. We can only pray that the Court of Appeal overturns this preposterous verdict.

The inexplicable conviction of Cardinal Pell, by Phil Lawler, CatholicCulture.org

The unfair, anti-Catholic conviction of Cardinal George Pell, by George Weigel, The New York Post

After guilty verdict, questions raised about Pell trial, by Ed Condon, Catholic News Agency

Truth and justice after the Pell verdict, by Frank Brennan, published in The Australian, reposted in Eureka Street. (An eye witness account of the trial, written by a priest and legal scholar.)

This was a fair trial?, Quadrant.

9 Comments

Carmel Righetti on 26 February 2019 at 3:50 pm

“And I say to you my friends: Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that they have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear” (Luke 12:4,5)

Dame Colleen Bayer on 26 February 2019 at 5:35 pm

COMMENTwith great sadness we received the news of this terribly wrong conviction. Cardinal Pell is innocent and does not deserve to do unjustly maligned. The real scoundrel MC Carrick and his mates should be tried and jailed forever, not this man. Cardinal George Pell we honour and respect you and will always pray for you. The truth will eventually be known.

T on 26 February 2019 at 6:12 pm

Thank you Fr John, we are so sad about this ridiculous miscarriage of justice. Thank you for speaking up.
God bless,

John Fannon on 26 February 2019 at 7:22 pm

If the appeal fails, (and I have no confidence in the judicial system) I do hope that the Church refuses to pay the massive compensation that will be levied. Money is the root of all this, I think.

Jason on 2 March 2019 at 4:57 pm

If I could just say. Is it now “Innocent even though proven guilty”.
If the second victim was alive, he had a heroin addiction. Can you honestly say that he would not have been torn apart by the defence, credibility destroyed for drug use. To have one witness who could not be disproved, a witness who has never seekeked publicity, give a account of the crime that could not be disproved. This was not about bringing down the church, it was justice. Pell could have taken the stand, he could have done many things to prove his “innocence”, but he failed. Now he is convicted. To not condemn him for his crime, but actively promote a miscarriage of justice is a brazen example of the way the church thinks about child sex abuse.
You are supposed to protect the lords children.

charles gerbra on 3 March 2019 at 7:24 pm

In some states, a trial can be by judge alone when an impartial jury cannot be found, for example, when the accused is high profile. The government is considering bringing Victoria into line. Compare George Pell’s trial with Lloyd Rayney’s in WA.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-01/verdict-handed-down-in-rayney-trial/4346322

Bernadette on 31 March 2019 at 1:09 pm

I found the article about the innocence of George Pell most disturbing. As a sibling of three brothers (two now deceased and who died at a young age) and a sister who were all sexually abused by two different catholic priests (one now deceased, one in jail) and as someone who has supported my sister over the years and in court to testify against her perpetrator where there were no other witnesses, leads me to see that this type of publication only encourages Catholics to refuse to believe sexual abuse vicitms, to judge them and those who support them as liars. This is very damaging to victims and secondary victims of sexual abuse some of who are still committed members of the Catholic church.

Timothy McKinnon on 16 April 2019 at 12:54 pm

It’s not about George Pell. It’s about the victim. I don’t believe the victim is a liar. My faith in legal institutions is far greater than my faith in the those who control the Church.

Hugues on 3 January 2020 at 5:22 pm

It’s an orchestrated affair and as a simple layperson from Mauritius, who has had no visibility on how the case evolved, I am gutted with the outcome. Cardinal Pell is clearly the innocent victim who must pay the price for the real crimes of some at the highest ranks of the Church’s hierarchy. Let Cardinal Pell know that even in our tiny island in the middle of the Indian ocean, there are catholics who believe in his innocence and who pray for him to have continued assistance from our dear Lord and Saviour.