Breda O’Brien: Cardinal George Pell’s complex legacy

There is something fitting about the fact that Cardinal George Pell’s last video interview, conducted by Irish journalist, Colm Flynn, concerned the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI.

Both men were figures of controversy, seen by their supporters as staunch upholders of Catholic orthodoxy and by their detractors as profoundly damaging influences.

In the interview, Pell tackles the caricatures of Pope Emeritus Benedict as the Rottweiler and Panzer Cardinal, declaring them absurd. Instead, he said, Benedict was “a quiet, gentle, pious man, an absolute gentleman”.

Not even his greatest admirer would ever have declared George Pell to be quiet or gentle. Those who hate him will always do so. Nonetheless, Pell evoked respect, sometimes reluctant, for the courageous dignity with which he endured 404 days in maximum security prisons, most of them in solitary confinement, imprisoned for crimes he did not commit.

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In the first prison, his neighbour was James Gargasoulas, described by a coroner as “a violent, drug-fuelled, psychotic and delusional perpetrator” who was later sentenced to 46 years for killing six and injuring 27 in a stolen car.

Pell was accused of sexual abuse of two choir boys at the conclusion of a Mass. It was a solemn occasion with dozens of choristers and altar servers processing out of the church and milling around the sacristy and corridors. In the space of six minutes, Pell was supposed to have committed heinous crimes.

He immediately started to implement the advice he used to give to priests going through a rough patch. Establish a routine, eat regularly, exercise, sleep, pray and celebrate the Eucharist

Pell’s first appeal against his conviction failed but one judge, Mark Weinberg, wrote a scathing 200-page dissenting judgment. Justice Weinberg said of the complainant’s evidence that there were “inconsistencies, and discrepancies, and a number of his answers simply made no sense”. He found witnesses for the defence credible and therefore could not support Pell’s conviction.

Seven judges of the Australian High Court (equivalent to our Supreme Court) later unanimously overturned Pell’s conviction, drawing heavily on Justice Weinberg’s analysis.

[ Obituary: Abuse trial damaged him and church irrevocably ]

Eclectic mix

Pell kept a journal while in prison, an eclectic mix of descriptions of his daily life, his thoughts on sport, reviews of television programmes, accounts of his reading, reflections on scripture, and prayer, including for those who accused and convicted him, and for victims of child abuse. There are also extracts from the thousands of supportive letters he received. (He prioritised answering letters from his fellow prisoners, most of whom accepted his innocence.)

Given his Irish Catholic roots, it is unsurprising that Ireland features prominently, particularly two Irish priests, Fr Tom McGovern and the irrepressible Fr Brendan Purcell. He muses often on the future of Catholicism in Ireland and worries about “the bland leading the bland”.

Pell was 78 when he was imprisoned. He wryly declares that boarding school and attending a pre-Vatican II seminary were good preparations for prison. He also acknowledges that a cell with a television, good shower, kettle, decent bed and limited access to books, despite the presence of an open toilet, was not exactly the worst form of solitary confinement.

He immediately started to implement the advice he used to give to priests going through a rough patch. Establish a routine, eat regularly, exercise, sleep, pray and celebrate the Eucharist. He was never allowed to celebrate Mass, a desperate privation for him.

His other great cross was the indignity of strip searches. He was subjected to them both randomly (in search of drugs) and also every time his legal team or others visited him.

Although both Benedict and Pell were seen as champions of orthodoxy, they could not have been more different

Pell gave up a potential career in Australian rules football to become a priest, a sport not known for shrinking violets. In an affectionate piece in Crux Now, veteran reporter on Catholic affairs, John L Allen, describes a typical encounter three weeks ago with Pell, who rang him to thunder at him for describing Pope Francis as “decisive”. Pell thought the Pontiff was a ditherer.

Allen says Pell stopped just short of calling him brain-dead but he still concluded by wishing Allen well, and then hung up without saying goodbye.

‘Tough as nails’

Allen describes the Pell he knew as “brash, hilarious, opinionated and tough as nails”, and says that people who worked for him described him as “equal parts a bull in a china shop and the most caring father figure you’d ever meet”.

It was probably that combination of qualities that led Pope Francis to nominate him to try to clean up the Vatican’s finances, a thankless and possibly impossible task. Pell made real progress but just as he was getting somewhere, he was falsely charged with child abuse, effectively hobbling him.

Although both Benedict and Pell were seen as champions of orthodoxy, they could not have been more different. The alleged Rottweiler was in fact too gentle, overwhelmed by the scandalous Vatican political machinations. Probably Pell deserved the Rottweiler tag more, but the man who emerges from his prison journals is a mellower, gentler figure than his public image.

Both were dogged by allegations of not doing enough about child abuse and both will continue to spark wildly differing reactions. Nonetheless, both deserve the description Pell gave to Colm Flynn to describe Benedict: a Christian disciple. Their desire to know, love and serve God and to bring Him to others shaped their lives. May they both rest in peace.