Opinion | What the George Pell conviction reveals about Pope Francis and the cancer eating at the Catholic Church
- The Vatican treasurer’s conviction on child sex charges, until recently kept out of the news by a gag order, raises questions about Pope Francis’ leadership and the church’s resolve in tackling clergy sexual abuse
When I was editor of The Universe, one conversation was inscribed indelibly on my memory. The monsignor who was the paper’s religious adviser told me that there is one crime that cries to Heaven for vengeance – the abuse of children.
Pell, 77, is appealing the conviction and steadfastly maintains his innocence. But the case demonstrates that there is a cancer eating at the Catholic Church and destroying its claim to holiness.
Crying “sorry”, calling a meeting of bishops to discuss abuse, denouncing clerical perpetrators as evil and preparing a bishop handbook are not sufficient. Pope Francis needs to do more and quickly. There have been far too many cases of priests abusing children in far too many places for the Pope and the church to shrug them off as a few weeds in a harvest.
Pell is no ordinary priest or bishop. The son of a publican in Ballarat, he was quickly marked out for higher things. He was ordained at St Peter’s in Rome and earned a doctorate at Oxford University. He was a bishop at age 45, then archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, then cardinal.
