The Catholic Weekly 19 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 12 NEWS 19, April, 2020 FEATURE Reporter Andrew Bolt interviews Cardinal George Pell on Sky News Australia. PHOTO: CNS SCREEN GRAB T he emphatic ac- quittal of Cardinal George Pell by Aus- tralia’s High Court is a moment of opportunity and testing for the Church in Australia. Will it meet the mo- ment? The acquittal raises serious questions for the Australian criminal justice system. Con- sider this one fact: No judge who had a future to worry about sided with Cardinal Pell. Every judge whose future was secure from recrimina- tions for judging fairly sided with the cardinal. At the Court of Appeal in Victoria, Justice Mark Wein- berg was the dissenting judge, whose 200-page dissent ut- terly demolished the majority opinion, which upheld the jury convictions. Weinberg is a 71-year-old retired judge who is called in for special cases because of his expertise. At the High Court, all sev- en justices — already in the final appointment of their careers and completely im- mune from future pressure — swatted away the convictions with such force that the whole Australian legal community is reeling. The implausibility of the convictions was matched by the incredulity of the High Court that the Court of Appeal majority could have got it so wretchedly wrong. That suggests the cultur- al and political environment in Australia is so toxic for the Catholic Church that a per- secution masquerading as a prosecution could be success- fully launched against Austral- ia’s most prominent Catholic. Remember this, too: The utterly fantastic Melbourne cathedral allegations were the most promising case for the prosecutors to pursue. The Victoria Police had solicited a number of even more out- rageous claims that never got to trial. What to call an effort to take down Australia’s most sen- ior prelate in a frenzy of out- rage — some of it deserved, but only some — against the Catholic Church? ¾ ¾ Fr Raymond de Souza Persecution. So suggested a not-very-thinly-veiled tweet from Pope Francis hours after Cardinal Pell’s acquittal: “In these days of #Lent, we’ve been witnessing the persecution that Jesus under- went and how He was judged ferociously, even though He was innocent. “Let us #PrayTogether to- day for all those persons who suffer due to an unjust sen- tence because someone had it in for them.” That is the enduring lesson of the Pell prosecution: The High Court judgment’s una- nimity, clarity and authority made it clear that something horrible had gone wrong. And what had horribly corrupted the administration of justice was the desire to persecute and punish, not prosecute justly. The Church in Australia is about to embark on an exten- sive plenary council process, a time of hoped-for renewal and evangelisation. But the plenary council will fail if it does not adequately take into account the reali- ty of the situation facing the Church. Preparing missionary disciples for a time of persecu- tion is a rather more daunting affair than blandly discussing Lessons of the Pell case Does the Catholic Church in Australia really grasp the real significance of what was happen- ing throughout the trials of Cardinal Pell? It wasn’t just about him how the Church might be rel- evant to this or that cultural trend or technological inno- vation. Does the Church in Aus- tralia realise that the wrong- ful conviction of Cardinal Pell was an example and warning to all Catholics who might be too open about their Catho- lic faith, too insistent on their rights as Catholic citizens, too convinced that the procla- mation of the Gospel is good news for contemporary Aus- tralia? It is no accident that the outrages against Cardinal Pell proceeded alongside the egre- gious assault on religious lib- erty and the confessional seal. There are mixed signals. Archbishop Anthony Fish- er of Sydney issued a strong statement that the High Court “decision confirms [Pell’s] conviction was wrong.” He went further, asking “that the pursuit of him that brought us to this point now cease.” “Pursuit” is a diplomatic word for persecution. On the other hand, the pres- ident of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference was stu- diously neutral. In a remark- able statement, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane simply noted that people took different views on the mat- ter: “Today’s outcome will be welcomed by many, includ- ing those who have believed in the cardinal’s innocence throughout this lengthy pro- cess. We also recognise that the High Court’s decision will be devastating for others. Many have suffered greatly through the process, which has now reached its conclu- sion.” If Archbishop Coleridge’s approach — for the shepherd to take a neutral position be- tween the wolves and the sheep — characterises the forthcoming Australian ple- nary council, the Church’s enemies will note that the Church in Australia will co- operate with its exclusion from any meaningful role in the common life of the com- monwealth. The previous president of the Australian bishops’ conference, Arch- bishop Denis Hart, then the successor to Cardinal Pell in Melbourne, took the same neutral line when Cardinal Pell’s persecution started. His performance added a personal dimension to the preemptive surrender, as he had known the cardinal per- sonally for decades and en- joyed his friendship. Wednesday of Holy Week is the day of the betrayal of Ju- das (Matthew 26:14-16). It was on that day, exactly two years ago, when the clarifying mo- ment came in the whole long matter. Robert Richter, Cardinal Pell’s lawyer, asked a member of the Victoria police about Operation Tethering, the in- vestigation launched against Cardinal Pell without any complaints. The operation was intended to solicit com- plaints wherever they could find them, conjured or other- wise. “Operation Tethering, that was a ‘get Pell’ operation, wasn’t it?” Richter asked. “I guess you could term it the way you did,” replied the policeman, adding that he would not call it that. From that moment it was clear that there was no crime being investigated in order to find a criminal, but a cardinal being investigated to find a crime. Whatwas done toa cardinal can be done, mutatis mutan- dis (changing what needs to be changed), to the Church in Australia as a whole. Will it be ready? - www.ncregister.com Father Raymond J. de Souza is the editor in chief of Con- viviummagazine. Does the Church in Australia realise that the wrongful conviction of Cardinal Pell was an example and warning to all Catholics who might be too open about their Catholic faith?”