Pope Francis is seeking to reform the kind of church George Pell led here. I pray he succeeds,or it will be diminished.
Neither the sanctification nor hatred directed at George Pell is a fair representation of the man.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said victims and survivors of abuse should be foremost in people’s thoughts.
The cardinal poured beers in his parents’ pub before entering the seminary. He would become the third-most senior man in the Vatican as the Pope’s treasurer.
The cardinal’s body will be interred in an underground room where a bomb exploded and was the final stop for a mysterious suitcase of bones.
The Pope is saddened by Pell’s death and says Pell was a “consistent and committed witness” with a lifelong dedication to the church.
Many people will not mourn George Pell’s passing.
Even in his own writings,it became clear why George Pell failed to win over the Australian people.
When a jury foreman announced a guilty verdict against Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric,there were only two audible sounds in the previously bustling courtroom.
The Coalition leader said the cardinal’s year in prison “should provide some cause for reflection for the Victorian Labor Government and its institutions”.
In some ways,the outspoken,brawling conservative Catholic from Victoria was better suited to his adopted home in Sydney.