Pell on the ropes

Pell on the ropes 

10 March 2016 | by Christopher Lamb | Comments: 0 The testimony by Cardinal George Pell to the Australian royal commission on child abuse was momentous for him and for the victims. But it was also highly significant for the reform programme of Pope Francis, whose third anniversary in office is marked this week
His father was a heavyweight boxing champion, a fact that might go some way to explain why Cardinal George Pell has never pulled his punches throughout his rise to the highest echelons of the Church.

The former Archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne – and current prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy – is a straight-talking defender of Catholic teaching and a tough administrator who takes no prisoners. He is presently tasked with the unenviable job of cleaning up the Vatican finances, in which he has shown a steely determination to uncover corruption and mismanagement. Such an approach has earned him powerful enemies.

Last week, however, the 74-year-old Australian faced his sternest test yet. But rather than the Vatican finances, the ordeal was about child abuse. The cardinal endured more than 19 hours of cross-examination in front of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in that country. The gruelling sessions took place in the middle of the night via a video link to Sydney from a hotel in Rome, where, in front of victims and journalists, the cardinal was told by counsel for the inquiry that his denials of knowing about abuse were “implausible”.

Pell must feel under siege from every side. The knives are out for him among the old guard of the Roman Curia, while in Australia he has become public enemy number one for his alleged failures in the handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandals. All this leaves the man who Pope Francis tasked with bringing about much-needed financial discipline looking isolated. This, in turn, threatens to undermine the reforming project of the Francis papacy, which tomorrow marks its third anniversary.

after giving his evidence to the abuse commission, Pell went on the offensive and said he will not resign, as this would amount to an “admission of guilt”. On 8 June, he turns 75, the age at which bishops are required to present their letters of retirement. It will be up to the Pope to decide whether to accept the one from Pell – but he is unlikely to do so straight away, given that he appointed the cardinal prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy for a five-year term, of which just two years have been served.

An early resignation might also rebound badly on Francis, who was elected by his fellow cardinals to sort out the Roman Curia and bring an end to the drip-drip of scandals, so often involving money. The Pope called Pell to Rome to help him with this task. And the Australian’s assistance was badly needed. Very quickly his secretariat established that some of the simplest accounting measures were not in place at the Vatican and that millions of euros had been left “off the books”.

Furthermore, Pell’s attempts to bring in basic budgetary controls have met with sustained internal opposition. Something of a turf war has developed between his team and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (Apsa), the body that manages the Holy See’s assets, along with elements within the Secretariat of State. The Pope is caught in the middle.
There is still much work for the cardinal’s office to complete. A full audit of the Holy See’s accounts, to be completed for the first time by outsiders in the form of PricewaterhouseCoopers, is under way, while all departments are being required to submit detailed budgets for income and expenditure. Vatican accounts for the latest financial year are expected to show it in the red.

But just as Pell attempts to bring an end to this financial mismanagement, so another scandal, involving clerical sexual abuse, has reared its head. A royal commission is the most wide-ranging inquiry tool at Australia’s disposal with the power to recommend prosecutions. Three years ago, the government in Canberra ordered one to examine how various institutions had dealt with sexual abuse claims, and the Church is now under serious scrutiny.

Pell is Australia’s most senior Catholic and has become something of a lightning rod for criticism. While he took steps back in 1996 to respond to the abuse crisis in Melbourne, a perception has developed of a man more interested in protecting the institution than responding to victims. He has always denied covering up abuse.

The commission is expected to report in April, and what it says about the cardinal will be carefully examined in Rome. Supporters believe that while he made a few mistakes in his evidence, no “smoking gun” emerged. He was allowed to speak via a video link on the advice of doctors concerned about his heart condition and his capacity to fly.

In his evidence, Pell stressed that for much of the period under question – the 1970s and 1980s – he was not a diocesan bishop and spent much of his time as an academic. During cross-examinations he was quizzed about a series of appalling cases in his home diocese of Ballarat, where a former priest, Gerald Ridsdale, was convicted of more than 130 sex offences. Ridsdale’s victims included his nephew, David, who was in Rome to watch Pell’s evidence along with other abuse victims whose trip was paid for by crowdfunding.
Despite allegations being made against Ridsdale, he was moved from parish to parish, where he continued to abuse children. During some of this period, Pell was episcopal vicar for education in Ballarat and a member of the college of consulters, an advisory body to the bishop.

In his evidence, he said that he knew nothing of the allegations against Ridsdale and that the Bishop of Ballarat, Ronald Mulkearns, had deceived him. Pell did admit that a schoolboy came to him about another abuser, Christian Brother Edward Dowlan, and that although he did not take up the allegation with the school he did refer it to the chaplain. But his evidence did not satisfy the watching victims, who described it as a “performance”. They were particularly upset by his remark that he “wasn’t much interested” in the Ridsdale case, and Pell later said he regretted the comment.

After his four nights of testimony, he met victims and pledged to do all he could to help them. Later, during an hour-long interview with Sky Television, the cardinal, often branded as insensitive, seemed close to tears when speaking of his encounter with David Ridsdale (he was a friend of the Ridsdale family). These were his people, from the community in Ballarat, where he grew up and served as a priest; meeting them, he said, was “hard” and “emotional”.

Perhaps Pell’s biggest problem is his style and manner. Speaking to Sky Television he acknowledged, “I’ve got a formidable temper, which I almost never show, but the discipline that is needed not to lapse in that way, I think helps explain my wooden appearance.”

To victims of abuse, Pell can come across as lacking in empathy; to the Roman Curia he is an outsider who refuses to conform to their ways and, even worse, threatens to upset them. His episcopal motto is “Be not afraid” and last week he said that to achieve anything “you need to conquer your fears”. That is one thing, at least, that Pell cannot be accused of failing to do.