Jesuit and Catholic Church - Clerical and Institutional Abuse Forum (Australia)

WARNING: Child Sex Abuse Content.

more Info pages...
♦ What Is Sex Abuse ♦ Defamation
♦ Eldon Hogan Xavier College ♦ Celso Romanin Civil Suit
♦ Jack Rush Defamation ♦ Jesuits Deed of Release
♦ Marilyn Warren Victor Higgs Report ♦ Ridsdale Ballarat Diocese
♦ St Louis School Claremont ♦ Survivor Led Response
♦ Theodore Overberg Celebrates 50 Years ♦ Archives Closed to Survivors
♦ the George Pell saga ♦ Quotes & Statements
♦ Jesuit Charities ♦ Client Opinion - In Good Faith Foundation
About Child Sex Abuse - Xavier College Kew Sex Abuse
the George Pell saga
George_Pell_after_release
George's goodbye - A Saint and seeker of truth
george_pell_pulling2
February 03, 2023
275 priests and 75 seminarians led the processional
"..this soldier for truth.."
“made a scapegoat for the church itself”
a “modern-day crucifixion”
“He should not have been charged in the absence of corroborating evidence .."
Tony Abbot

“404 days spent in prison for a crime he did not commit”
The archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher

♦ www.theguardian.com

They all do it, the Jesuits do it, praise the deceased and deny and ignore the dark side.
All the little soldiers fall in line, 350 of them.
They are being taught and shown that the reputation of the church and its members is still more important than the truth.

As followers of Christ they should be ashamed of themselves for paticipating in this "priest washing".

Pell's creation of the Melbourne Response illustrates his black heart.
No empathy, pay them a pittance and get rid of them.

As Saint George Pell and his lawyers said , you can't sue us (the catholic church) because we don't exist.
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus - Sermon on the mount


October 14, 2021
Row at Oxford over lecture invite to Cardinal Pell
The University of Oxford’s Catholic student society has invited Cardinal George Pell to give its prestigious annual lecture,
attracting both praise and criticism from within Oxford’s Catholic community.

Cardinal Pell, formerly Archbishop of Sydney and Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019,
will be giving the Newman Society’s annual Thomas More lecture, which is this year entitled “The Suffering Church in a Post-Christian Society”.

She pointed to the 2017 finding by Australia's royal commission into child sexual abuse:
“Cardinal Pell was not only conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy, but he also considered measures
of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it.” Perry said she was “stunned” by the society’s choice of lecturer.

In a statement, the Newman Society said that it shares “the pain of those protesting”, as well as the goal of ending the “scourge of sexual abuse” within the Church.

This goal, however, derives from a principle, justice, that impels the fair treatment of the innocent ,just as it does the punishment of the guilty, the society added.

♦ www.thetablet.co.uk


December 17, 2020
Pell speaks out about prison, Trump, and the role of a retired pope
ROME – At the virtual launch of his new book, Cardinal George Pell opened up about what his time in prison before acquitted of charges of sexual abuse was like, and he also offered an evaluation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s time in office as well as the need for a set of clear rules when a pope retires.

Speaking to journalists during a Dec. 16 virtual press conference of his book, Prison Journal, detailing the first five months in jail, Pell said he decided to write the book in part as a “historical record of a strange time,” but more importantly, because “I felt my reflections might be able to help people.”

In 2017, Pell, who was serving as head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy and a top papal advisor, became the most senior Catholic official to be charged with sexual abuse when he was accused of molesting two choirboys in the sacristy of the Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s, shortly after Pell had been named archbishop.
A first trial ended in a hung jury; however, a second jury unanimously convicted him in December 2018. This conviction was upheld on appeal, but eventually overturned by Australia’s High Court, allowing Pell to walk free in April after spending 404 days behind bars.

In his journal, Pell reflects on the events and encounters of each day, including the day-by-day developments of his legal case, as well as his spiritual readings and prayers, applying them to his situation, which he viewed as an “extended retreat” and a time to devote to prayer and reading.

Speaking of his experience in prison, Pell said that “God writes straight in crooked lines.”
“I still regret that it happened, I wouldn’t have chosen it,” he said, “but there I was, and please God, I did my duty, while I was in jail, I did my Christian duty and some good, some fruit, might come out through this.”

Asked whether he believed the case against him was contrived or simply just sloppy police work, Pell said he believes “very possibly there’s a bit of both in the matter.”
Pell said he has heard rumors that the prosecutors in the case did not consent to bringing the charges against him forward, but the police did anyway.

“There’s even gossip floating around that the prosecutors suggested the police pay for the motion themselves, and not the prosecutor’s office,” he said, adding that while he does not know whether this is true, “things were sloppy at best.”

In the past, Pell has suggested that his legal woes were possibly linked to this effort to clean up the Vatican’s finances while serving as its economic czar. During his time in that post, he often clashed with the Vatican’s so-called old guard, his most fierce opponent being the then-number three official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Becciu has since been ousted from his post as head of the Vatican’s department for saints over charges of embezzlement. There is currently no known investigation into the allegations, however, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in recent months issued speculative reports saying a sum of roughly $823,000 in Vatican money had been wired to an account in Australia, questioning whether the funds were tied to Pell’s abuse trial.
In his comments to journalists, Pell said he does not have proof that there is a connection.

“What I think we can say,” he said, “is that one of the monsignors who has been in the Roman papers has said he’s seen evidence of money going to Rome, and I myself am quite confident that money did go from Rome to Australia about that time, but I’ve got no proof about where it ended up.”
There’s smoke, he said, “but we don’t have proof of fire.”

Pell returned to Rome in September to pack up his old apartment, which he maintained throughout his legal proceedings, but which had been left untouched since his departure in 2017.
In the roughly two months that he’s been here, Pell said he has met with several people, including retired pope Benedict XVI and his successor as prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, Spanish Jesuit Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, whom he said seemed “capable and honest.”


“I hope he will receive all the support necessary,” he said, speaking of Guerrero Alves. Pell stressed that he has not met with Becciu, saying, “there wouldn’t be a lot to discuss between us.”

Pell stressed that as he is nearly 80, he has no intention of taking on further Vatican responsibilities, and nor does he plan to seek compensation for wrongful imprisonment, but intends to return to Australia to enjoy his retirement.

In his journal Pell also comments about the role of the pope emeritus, saying it should be “clarified.” Among the suggestions he made for a pope emeritus were that he should stop dressing in white, that he should not teach publicly, and that he should go back to using the title of “cardinal” instead of pope, to avoid any confusion.

Referring to these suggestions, Pell, a known conservative, said he respects Benedict XVI’s theological and doctrinal positions, and voiced hope that one day the retired pope will be named a saint and Doctor of the Church.

However, “for some years, years and years, I have thought the unity of the church is not something” to be taken lightly, he said, pointing to disagreements among some Orthodox churches.

“I have not met even one person in Rome who does not believe that protocols are needed for popes who retire,” he said.

“Obviously, many love the popes, we have great respect, but the necessity of the situation, the unity of the church, is on a different level which very much goes beyond a certain personality,” Pell said, insisting this is what inspired the reflections in his journal.

Pell also offered his evaluation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s single term in office, saying “he was a little bit of a barbarian, but he was our barbarian.”

Calling Trump a “controversial fellow,” Pell also praised certain moves Trump made, such as his Supreme Court appointments and his decision to participate in the annual March for Life.
“I’m grateful for that and I’m not one running around trying to damn his memory,” he said, adding, “In a democracy we Christians have got a right, and indeed an obligation, to struggle to maintain Christian values in life, because the moment they start to disappear, notions like truth and reason and free speech” also go away.

“On the whole I think Trump has made a positive contribution to the Christian cause, but in other areas, I’m not so sure he’s been sufficiently respectful of the political process,” Pell said, adding, “it’s no small thing to weaken trust in great public institutions.”

Despite the challenges of his legal battle, Pell said there were some silver linings, such as the numerous letters he received, the support from friends and family, and the change of pace from a busy cardinal’s life to a slower rhythm of prayer and reflection.

Noting that many supporters have voiced their belief that Pell was scapegoated for all of Australia’s clerical abuse scandals and the failure of the hierarchy to properly address the problem when abuse came to light, Pell said he’s “not at all comfortable in a hero’s role.”

“I tried to do my duty, and I was much heartened by the people,” he said, noting that while he was in prison, a fellow prisoner who was an atheist prayed for him.

Pell said he believed there were elements of “evil” behind his conviction, saying “the forces against me which were using deceptions or misapprehensions or creating confusion, enhancing obscurity.”

He said evil is “at the heart of the pedophilia crisis,” and is the ultimate cause of the suffering of “those who have abused, these young people, so very, very badly.”

Whether the Church is doing enough to help victims depends on the area, Pell said, voicing his belief that in Australia, “we’re moving along in the right direction.”
♦ cruxnow.com

George's martyrdom progress
(all we need is a miracle or two and we'll have a living saint)

George Pell tells Italian media there is 'some evidence but no proof' Vatican conspired against him
Comments are the strongest cardinal has made alleging abuse charges may be linked to Vatican corruption
Cardinal George Pell has told an Italian current affairs program that there is “some evidence but no proof” that the Vatican conspired to “destroy” him, the strongest comments he has made to date that allege the charges against him may be linked to Vatican corruption.

Pell is soon to publish a memoir of his time in jail, called “404 days”. Pell told Sette Storie he developed a daily routine while in jail.
“I tried to keep living,” he said. “The situation was horrible, I knew that I could appeal against the decision, that it did not end there. I also knew that if things had gone really bad in this life I could successfully argue my case before the good lord in the next life. But of course it was a big blow.”
♦ www.theguardian.com

The very strong defenders of George Pell
Ultra conservatives doing victory laps.

"He had been held captive for over 400 days. Against this, the three books about the Pell case already on the shelves remain festering there,
all of them written by Pell-hating, leftist feminists, without apology or modification. ".

"With Windschuttle’s book, George Pell’s enemies have now been laid bare, and their lies and evil intentions exposed.
That they all seem quite unapologetic (if sullen) about it will only further the ultimate disdain, indeed contempt,
with which they will forever be regarded by the children of the Light."

♦ The Persecution of George Pell - thefreedomsproject.com


George's rehab going well
All you abuse survivors out there turn your cheek for another hard slap from Papa Frank.
It does seem George's skills with politics and power are getting results.

Pope Francis is willing to ignore the many proofs and pointers to Pell being involved with covering up sex abuse, lying about it, treating survivors apallingly and that's enough even before the long list of sex abuse allegations against him.

If Francis can do that its proof he is not serious about sex abuse in his church and has no regard for the feelings of survivors.

Hand Washing or Social Distancing in the Time of Pell
By Gail Freyne | On 2 November 2020

The parish priest, Jorge Bergoglio could afford the luxury of welcoming with open arms an old colleague whom he believed to have been falsely accused of sexual abuse.
Even as Pope Francis he could have indulged himself with warm greetings in private.
But the public display in photographs and videos of unqualified acceptance – most headlines have called it vindication – has profoundly dismayed thousands of survivors and their families around the world.
♦ johnmenadue.com


October 19, 2020
George Pell holds public mass in Rome for 10th anniversary of Mother Mary MacKillop’s canonisation
George_Pell_mass_Rome_October2020
George Pell has conducted a public mass in Rome celebrating the 10th anniversary of the canonisation of Mother Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint.
Cardinal Pell held the service over the weekend in the chapel of Domus Australia, near Porta Pia, in the presence of former prime minister Tony Abbott (St.Ignatius, Riverview) and dignitaries including the US ambassador to the Holy See, Callista Gingrich, and her husband, the US Republican politician and former speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich.

During the Mass, a prayer was said for Tim Fischer (Xavier College) , the former deputy prime minister and leader of the National Party who oversaw the canonisation of Mother Mary MacKillop when he was Australia’s representative to the Holy See.
♦ www.theaustralian.com.au


October 23, 2020: Victoria police won't investigate claims of Vatican money transfers to Australia linked to Pell case
Victoria police has confirmed being made aware of payments from the Vatican to Australia, but says that without evidence of “suspicious activity” it is not investigating them.
On Tuesday, Australia’s financial crimes watchdog, Austrac, revealed it had provided information to the federal and Victorian police after it was asked to examine allegations that €700,000 (A$1.1m) had been paid from Vatican funds, allegedly in connection with George Pell’s court matters.

On Friday, a Victoria police spokeswoman told Guardian Australia: “Austrac has made Victoria police aware of transfer of monies from the Vatican over a period of time to Australia.”
“They have not advised Victoria police of any suspicious activity related to these transactions,” she said. “In the absence of any other evidence or intelligence, Victoria police has noted the advice from Austrac. We are not at this time conducting any further investigation.”
♦ www.theguardian.com

An apology from George Pell and a Deed of Release from Richard Leder of Corrs Chambers Westgarth lawyers to a woman in 1999. She received $30,000.
George_Pell_Deed_01med George_Pell_Deed_01min george_Pell_Deed_02min George_Pell_Deed_03min George_Pell_Deed_04min George_Pell_Deed_05min Click on image to enlarge.
I'm Leaving On a Jetplane. Don't know when I'll be back again.
George_Pell_RomeB_Oct2020
George pretends to be sucking it up in rome.
Cardinal George Pell Donation Project
A Message from Fr. Fessio, S.J.
"This is not just about Cardinal Pell.
His victory was not just a victory for one man. It was a victory for the Church.
And not just the Church in Australia. It revealed to all the world just how far the Church’s enemies will go and
how deceitful they will be to discredit her."

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation for this purpose.
In the Lord,
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.
Editor, Ignatius Press
Donations can be made here via the Ignatius Press website or
You can mail your tax-deductible donation to:
Guadalupe Associates, Inc
1348 10th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94122
♦Full text at www.ignatius.com


The gossip doing the rounds in Melbourne is that a high profile catholic QC funded George's defence and appeals.

Up-close account of Pell's historic trial raises an uncomfortable question
Melissa Davey, Guardian Australia's Melbourne bureau chief, spent hour after hour and day after day in the back of courtroom 4.3 of the southeastern state of Victoria's County Court.
Her resulting volume, The Case of George Pell: Reckoning with Child Sexual Abuse by Clergy, is an invaluable resource.
♦ www.ncronline.org


George Pell's lawyer calls for investigation into claim bribes paid to influence sexual assault case
The barrister who led the defence of Cardinal George Pell says an international investigation should be launched into extraordinary claims that bribes were paid to influence the sexual assault case involving the senior Australian cleric. Italian newspapers have claimed that Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, a rival of Pell, was suspected of paying €700,000 (A$1.1m) to an Australian witness in the case.
Robert Richter QC said it was incumbent on Australian and international authorities to investigate the allegations.
“They are concerning allegations and require thorough investigation of the money trail, wherever that may be,” Richter told Guardian Australia.
♦www.theguardian.com

Sept. 29, 2020 - Cardinal George Pell returns to Rome for first time since child sex abuse convictions quashed A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Sydney confirmed Cardinal Pell will fly out of Sydney today, but the purpose and duration of the visit is not known.
♦ abc.net.au

♦ 9news.com.au - George Pell lands in Rome ahead of return to the Vatican for possible meeting with Pope Francis


Parolin: There is ‘no connection’ between Pell arrival, Becciu ouster
Oct 2, 2020
ROME – Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has said there is no connection between the timing of the return of Australian Cardinal George Pell to Rome and the recent resignation of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who are known rivals in the bid to reform the finances of the Holy See.

“There is no connection between the two things,” Parolin said Oct. 1, speaking to press on the margins of an event organized for the release of the book, Tunic and Cassock by Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, who oversees the communications department for the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

According to Parolin, after his release from prison Pell “asked to return to Rome. There was no summoning of Pell by the pope. It was he who asked to come to Rome to end his stay here, because he still has his apartment, so he came here to close it up.”
cruxnow.com



Lawyer denies Pell's accuser ever received money for evidence
The lawyer for the man who gave evidence against George Pell at trial has denied her client ever received money, amid reports in the Italian media that Vatican funds were sent to people in Australia to help secure the sex assault conviction against the cardinal.

Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera have reported that one of Cardinal Pell's rivals in the Vatican, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, is suspected of arranging for €700,000 ($1.14 million) to be wired to recipients in Australia to ensure evidence against Cardinal Pell. ♦ www.smh.com.au

Coinciding with George's arrival there's a leak to the press. Hmmmmmm...

Pope meets George Pell for first time since cardinal's abuse acquittal
Francis may have sought Pell’s view on various allegations against former deputy
Pope Francis has met George Pell in his first audience with the cardinal since Pell was cleared of child sexual abuse charges in Australia this year.
Pell, a former Vatican economy minister, returned to Rome in late September, days after a top Italian cardinal with whom he had long-running differences was asked to resign amid embezzlement claims.
The audience with the pontiff on Monday morning had been expected, and the Vatican gave no further details.
Pell told reporters afterwards that the meeting had gone “very well”.
♦ www.theguardian.com

The Pope and Pell: 'One of the most fascinating relationships in Rome'
Andrew West
The Pope is understood to have believed in Cardinal George Pell’s innocence of child sexual abuse charges. But their different visions of the Catholic church puts a limit of their alliance
♦ More.. www.theguardian.com

Special Treatment. Why?
First he travels by road from Melbourne to Sydney breaking Covid rules.
Now he's leaving Australia without seemingly qualifying for an exemption.
♦ https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia
If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident you cannot leave Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions unless you have an exemption.
You can apply online but you must meet at least one of the following:
  1. your travel is as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the provision of aid
  2. your travel is essential for the conduct of critical industries and business (including export and import industries)
  3. you are travelling to receive urgent medical treatment that is not available in Australia
  4. you are travelling on urgent and unavoidable personal business
  5. you are travelling on compassionate or humanitarian grounds
  6. your travel is in the national interest.

The Guardian reports that Cardinal George Pell did not need to apply for a travel exemption to leave Australia because
he is travelling to Rome for official Vatican government business. ♦ www.theguardian.com

George's good friend, Andrew Bolt, said he was going there to clean out his apartment.
Pell has no official position or role at the Vatican.
It still looks fake.

He's back!
George_Pell_and_Pope_Francis_Vatican_October2020
In a made for the media event Francis gives his blessing to George.
Sending out the old message, if you haven't been convicted you are completely innocent.

Pope Francis signs Tutti Frutti
Ooops that should read Fratelli Tutti.
Pope_Francis_signed_his_third_encyclical_Fratelli_Tutti
Fratelli Tutti doesn't deny the right to property, however, but tries to reorient it as a responsibility, suggesting,
for instance, that it should translate into care for the planet.
“All this brings out the positive meaning of the right to property: I care for and cultivate something that I possess,
in such a way that it can contribute to the good of all,”
he writes.
♦ religionnews.com

The logic of that says that the church's enormous property holdings are only acceptable if they are contributing to the common good.
Highly questionable IMHO.


‘Jail is undignified’: Cardinal Pell recounts strip-searches in interview
Cardinal George Pell says the strip searches were the worst part of his time in jail, while he sensed “a whiff of evil” at work during his trials.

In an in-depth interview with the BBC’s Heart and Soul program, Cardinal Pell said jail was a massive change from being the third most powerful figure in the Catholic Church.

“Jail is undignified, you are at the bottom of the pit. You are humiliated but, by and large, I was treated decently so that was a big help,” Cardinal Pell said.

“The worst single thing was the strip searches, they are brief, humiliating and the ignominy of it is probably the worst of it.

“I had a firm base for a bed, a hot shower, which is very important to Australians, and the food, there was too much of it.”

Cardinal Pell was freed from jail last year after the High Court quashed his conviction for child-sex abuse, and he returned to the Vatican last October where he remains today.

He said he never felt despair during his time behind bars.

“I think the good Lord realised that spiritually I’m pretty ordinary, so I wasn’t tempted to despair, I wasn’t on the edge of an abyss and I always realised that God was active but I didn’t know what he was up to,” Cardinal Pell said.

When asked if he wondered why this was happening to him, Cardinal Pell said he didn’t.

“In the Christian story Jesus never got a good run either, that is fundamental to our approach, the idea that suffering can be redemptive,” Cardinal Pell said.

“I’ve said to many people that Jesus suffered too. I’m not a prosperity Christian. So I never believed that because I was trying to do the right thing, that everything would have to be easy for me. That is not the Christian story.

“It wasn’t as though I ran around for days saying ‘why me, why me?’ I hoped I could be like Job from the Old Testament. Job’s problems were resolved in this life, he didn’t have to wait for Heaven for everything to be evened up as a lot of people do.”

“One of my lessons from my time in jail is that the Christian package works. If you believe there is a God, that all things will be well, that ultimately in the afterlife there will be peace and harmony and justice.

“If you really believe that, no matter what terrible things might happen to you here, it’s not a Greek tragedy, as for the [ancient] Greeks there is no afterlife, no possibility of fixing it up, the outcome was brutal and final. That is not a Christian perspective.”

Cardinal Pell repeated previous comments from his trials about having a sense of good and evil playing out.

“That point was made by one or two of my friends who are not deeply into that style of thing,” Cardinal Pell said.

“You feel as though there is a whiff of evil. Sometimes there is.”

Cardinal Pell also said he had thought about the two men who accused him while laying in bed in jail.

“Of course I did. One of them died years ago. But I’m a pretty good sleeper,” Cardinal Pell said.

“Perhaps, strangely, I’ve never been strongly antipathetic to the fellow who accused me. I didn’t know him. Nothing like what he said occurred.”

He said he had “forgiven” his accusers but would have more trouble forgiving others.

“You can decide to forgive and, perhaps later, there can be another surge of resentment.

“The important thing with forgiveness, no matter how you feel, you decide to forgive and then generally the good feelings follow.

“I certainly hope [my accuser] finds peace as I think over the years he has had anything but that. Yes, of course, I would meet with him, but I found it a bit harder to forgive those who may have been involved in shaping his recollections.”
♦ www.theage.com.au



August 25, 2021
Frank Brennan SJ weighs in again.
Pell trial was political vendetta claims legal scholar
Frank_Brennan_ACU

Victoria’s policing and criminal justice systems erred so seriously in relation to Cardinal George Pell that it shows that not even victims of abuse or bona fide complainants, let alone an accused person like the cardinal, could rely on them, Father Frank Brennan SJ, Australian legal expert, has claimed.

The law professor and rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne attended key parts of Cardinal Pell’s trials and appeals and had access to court transcripts.

He became convinced that the cardinal was innocent of the historical sexual abuse charges brought against him and that he should never have had to face them.

In an exclusive interview with The Catholic Weekly, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Father Brennan was scathing in his assessment of the police work conducted under the former Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton and subsequent failures that saw Cardinal Pell imprisoned for 13 months until his release through a unanimous decision of the High Court of Australia in April 2020.

Father Brennan’s latest book, Observations on the Pell Proceedings, was published in April. His exclusive eight-page analysis by of the entire case will appear in the September 5 edition of The Catholic Weekly.

Father Brennan said he “cannot forgive” the actions of the Victorian Police and the Victoria director of public prosecutions in the cardinal’s matter and believes they were the result of a political vendetta against the prelate.


These caused both the cardinal and his accuser months of unnecessary agony and had consequences for genuine complainants and victims of abuse, he said.

“All of us, including those of us in the church, but also victims and bona fide complainants, need to be assured that the legal system was doing its job,” said the priest.

Father Brennan, an adjunct professor of law at the Thomas More Law School at Australian Catholic University, said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had done the necessary work in shedding light on “deficient” management structures in the church that had put children at risk. But along with a separate Victorian parliamentary inquiry, this also resulted in an environment where the cardinal could become a scapegoat.

Upon his appointment as archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, Cardinal Pell had established the Melbourne Response in consultation with the Victorian Police and Victorian legal authorities, yet there was still a perception that he had failed to make necessary changes in the interests of children in the church, Father Brennan added.

“By the time it came to (his) trial, there’s no doubt that a lot of people in Australia, particularly in some of the media, particularly in the Victoria Police, were looking for both a scapegoat and a victim,” he said.

“Sadly, the two most senior judges of Victoria, the chief justice and the president of the Court of Appeal, I think were infected with the same sort of mentality that the juries had when they came to this case.

“They were not sufficiently dispassionate to look at the evidence and say there’s no way at all that a jury could be convinced on this.”

Father Brennan was commissioned by the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference to observe the court proceedings and report on them once a suppression order was lifted.

He said he became convinced of the cardinal’s innocence when prosecutor Mark Gibson, whom he knew to be “an honourable man and a good lawyer”, struggled in vain to find the six minutes when the offending against two choristers after a solemn high Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral was alleged to have occurred. But that was only one of the many serious problems with the case against the cardinal.

”You’re left thinking of the enormous resources the police invested (when all they were) interested in was getting Pell charged,” Father Brennan said.

“They knew that by getting him charged, they would have destroyed his reputation, and that’s what it was, a sting operation.”

While the case “did no favours” to Cardinal Pell or the Catholic Church, it also did not help victims or bona fide complainants, Father Brennan said.

The priest said he is appalled that both the cardinal and his accuser, known as Witness J, “were put through extraordinary agony of different sorts by incompetent policing and by a director of public prosecutions who should have known much better than to make a show trial of this one”.

Despite some public differences on a number of issues, the Jesuit said that his relationship with the cardinal has grown “quite friendly” over the past two years.

“I would say that he is an honourable man, and having got to know him more as I did, I was left in even less doubt, if that was possible, that he could have possibly done what was alleged,” Father Brennan said.
♦ www.thetablet.co.uk
♦ cruxnow.com