The Catholic Weekly 19 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 11 19, April, 2020 As Cardinal Pell said in his interview with Andrew Bolt earlier this week, Christians know that earthly tribunals do not have the final say, and so we are able to hope even in the midst of obvious injustice.” or not capable of remedy- ing the deliberate targeting of Cardinal Pell by mem- bers of Victoria Police, his wrongful conviction or the blatantly incorrect decision of the majority of the Victo- rian Court of Appeal, then we would never be able to trust that we ourselves would never face a similar injustice. If all but a small and no- ticeable minority of the media had not seemingly repented from their earlier coverage of the Cardinal’s case and offered fair space to detailing why his acquit- tal was a just result, then we would never be able to trust that those whose role it is to report the news were very much interested in the truth. If our political leaders and the community more broadly had not, for the most part, accepted the definitive decision of the High Court as reasonable, then we would have rea- son to be gravely concerned about the type of society we have become. [That peo- ple like Victorian Premier Dan Andrews still refus- es to acknowledge, much less accept the decision, is thankfully an anomaly that says more about his bias than the decision itself.] The true import of the Pell case L ast week, in light of the quashing of the conviction of Cardi- nal George Pell by a unanimous decision of the High Court of Australia, I was approached by a certain national broadcaster for an interview. They wanted me to provide some commen- tary on what the decision meant for Catholics in Aus- tralia. The interview didn’t end up going ahead, but I still had the opportunity to re- flect on the question. Without wanting to be rude, the conclusion I came to is that the final ruling of the High Court wasn’t near- ly as significant for Catholics as I had expected. Don’t get me wrong. I love Cardinal Pell. I am thrilled that the High Court saw what so many oth- ers did: that the allegations against him were simply im- plausible given the ample unchallenged evidence in his favour, that the judges wrote a decisive, joint de- cision that confirmed that a jury – acting rationally – ought to have doubted his guilt, and that they ordered his immediate release. And I am grateful he is now free. But as I reflected on what the decision meant for Cath- olics in Australia, I don’t think it meant that much at all. Whatever the outcome of the case, the position of Catholics in Australia was always going to remain the same. The day before the High Court’s ruling, Catholics in Australia were called to love God and neighbour, to preach the Gospel, to be of service to the communi- ty, to commit ourselves to the care of survivors of child abuse and the fair and just treatment of the accused and the like. In other words, the constant call for Cath- olics is for us to become saints and for the Church to mediate the graces for us to achieve this, and as we watched footage of the Car- dinal making his way back home to Sydney the day af- ter his release, the call re- mained the same. It reminded me of an Eas- ter week homily where the priest preached: “Christ is risen; get back to work.” The point of the homily was that while we enter fully into the joy of the Easter season, we could not rest for too long because there was still work to be done. Would this have been dif- ferent if the High Court had come to a different decision, and the Cardinal had re- mained in prison? The answer is no. The mission might have been more difficult, to be sure. There would have been a sense of grief and confusion, particularly for the many people who were convinced of his inno- cence. There would have been more opportunities for those who did not believe the Cardinal to be innocent to label the Church as hyp- ocritical and tainted. The Church’s already diminished voice in the public square would take another blow. But none of this would have changed the task be- fore us, nor our faith in the Risen Christ who prom- ised to never abandon His Church. This is not to dimin- ish the importance of the High Court ruling, but to put it in context. As Cardi- nal Pell said in his interview with Andrew Bolt earlier this week, Christians know that earthly tribunals do not have the final say, and so we are able to hope even in the midst of obvious injustice. Contrast this with how a decision against the Car- dinal would have affected our faith in the justice sys- tem. If the highest court in the land was not willing As Archbishop Fisher said on the day of the acquit- tal, this was not just a trial of Cardinal Pell, but also of our legal system and cul- ture, and it is for the latter two that the decision bears the most significance, be- cause they had much more to lose from a bad decision than Catholics, the Church or even the Cardinal. Australian Cardinal George Pell is pictured in Rome May 8, 2014. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/ROBERT DUNCAN The High Court’s decision was vital tomore than one person T o the point with Monica Doumit SEE OUR LATEST JOBS Call Katie (02) 9390 5402 catholicjobsonline.com. au Find the career you deserve