Legacy of the Controversial Cardinal George Pell

Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney presides over Easter Sunday Solemn High Mass at Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia, on April 24, 2011. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Commentary

Cardinal George Pell was a paradoxical figure. His life and work will give ammunition to those who admired him and those who hated him, as we see in the conflicting articles about him in the media.

While he rightly deserved criticism for his treatment of a number of victims of child abuse, he was the first Catholic leader in Australia to initiate a proper redress program for victims.

The Melbourne Response has been an influential model for Catholic and non-Catholic programs worldwide.

A boxer and footballer as a young man, he brought a confrontational and pugilistic personality into the public arena. But in person, he was honest, warm, caring, and genuinely interested in people.

As seen in his connection to “David’s Place” in Sydney, he was a model of compassion to the poor, the marginalised, and the mentally ill.

He was fiercely loyal to the Pope, yet outspoken when he saw the need.

In a recent interview, he was highly critical of the Vatican’s secret treaty with the People’s Republic of China.

He saw no gain in the treaty for Catholics and noted that persecution of people of faith were getting worse. He also criticised the secrecy of the agreement.

A Chinese Catholic deacon holds a bible at the Palm Sunday Mass during the Easter Holy Week at an "underground" or "unofficial" church near Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, on April 9, 2017. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

In the same interview, he criticised the treatment of Catholic traditionalists and restrictions on the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass.

Pell’s vocation was cut short by charges from which he was ultimately acquitted, unanimously, by Australia’s highest court.

The High Court’s judgment and the prior dissenting opinion of Justice Weinberg should be compulsory reading for anyone wanting to comment on the case.​

Pell’s case has been likened to the wrongful conviction of Lindy Chamberlain, and in due course, we hope that this will prompt a serious review and reform of Victoria’s criminal justice system.

Pell’s Mark on the Church

In terms of his legacy to the Church, the most notable was that he made orthodoxy viable for conservative or traditional Australian Catholics.

By the early 1990s, many of them felt, rightly or wrongly, that they were marginalised by an increasingly liberalised Church. Cardinal Pell became a central figure who made conservatives feel that they were not just part of the mainstream but that they were the mainstream of the Church.

His unflinching commitment to the truth of the Catholic faith was what led Pope John Paul II to promote him. Among the many candidates for Archbishop of Sydney, the Pope resolutely declared, “I want Pell.”

In his pursuit of traditional Catholic truth, Cardinal Pell had a strong emphasis on education. Asked why he wanted orthodox Catholic teaching in schools, he remarked that he wanted students to at least know from what they were dissenting.

Cardinal Pell was directly or indirectly responsible for the appointment of many of today’s bishops, priests, and educators in Australia. He also influenced the election of Pope Benedict XVI, being described as a “key campaigner” for him.

A parishioner holds a photo of Pope Benedict VXI and attends a Solemn Pontifical Requiem mass to pay homage to Cardinal George Pell at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 12, 2023. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

His pugilistic instincts and no-nonsense approach made him an ideal candidate to be appointed Prefect of the Vatican’s economy ministry in 2014. There he found that the Vatican’s finances were worse than could have been imagined.

He stated that he “didn’t know that there was so much [alleged] criminality involved.” Under his resolute leadership, he found hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts that were not properly accounted for, in the process alienating those who benefited from irregular accounting practices.

There have been suggestions that the criminal case against him was influenced by the enemies he made.

Despite many pressures, he worked to ensure that the Vatican’s finances were subject to the strictest of international standards of transparency and accounting. If his work is continued, it will have the potential to be the most comprehensive reform of Vatican finances in hundreds of years.

People will have mixed memories of Cardinal Pell, but he will have an enduring legacy. Whether it is the confidence he gave to orthodox Catholics, his influence on the appointment of Church leaders and educators, or his work to reform the Holy See’s finances, he will be remembered in equal measure by his friends and foes.

One might also be hopeful that part of his legacy will be an increased scepticism of mainstream media reporting.

Since his death, too many reporters have written about the Cardinal as if he was guilty of the crime of which he was acquitted unanimously by the High Court of Australia.

The willful ignorance and manipulation of truth on display in the mainstream media make one hopeful that people will turn to more reliable sources of information.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.