Where does the royal commission leave Cardinal Pell in the Vatican?

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Where does the royal commission leave Cardinal Pell in the Vatican?

02 March 2016 | by Christopher Lamb | Comments: 1

The Pope will not want to see the cardinal go before his work reforming the Holy See's finances is done

In Australia, Cardinal Pell is public enemy number one. His evidence on Tuesday to the country’s abuse inquiry, when he said the case of abusive priest Gerard Ridsdale didn’t particularly interest him, has led to a vilification in the press.
The news was on the front page of at least two newspapers with the Herald Sun carrying a picture of the cardinal with the headline “see no evil, hear no evil, stop no evil” while the Courier Mail had “not my cross”. And there is far, far worse on social media.
In the Vatican, however, things are not seen in such black and white terms.
One thing is for sure though: the cardinal’s evidence to the commission into institutional responses to the abuse of children is being monitored closely by senior figures in Rome and it seems that there are two schools of thought over how they view it.
There are some who see the cardinal as being attacked unfairly in the media and hounded by lawyers. They would point to the fact that Cardinal Pell has given evidence to the commission twice before and to another state inquiry. He is, they argue, appearing in front of the commission voluntarily and is being honest that he didn’t know about abusive priests over the period that is being examined, nor was he bishop running his own diocese.
The cardinal’s reputation in the Vatican is also very different to how he is seen in Australia. In Rome he has been asked by Pope Francis to reform the Holy See’s finances and is attempting to bring about long-awaited accountability and transparency. This has in turn created him some enemies among the Church’s old guard and he is not popular among certain Italians in the Roman Curia.
There is another group in Rome who know how bad things appear with Pell’s evidence and are aware of how toxic and damaging the sex abuse crisis is. By being cross-examined via video link in the Eternal City the cardinal has brought the whole issue right on to the Vatican’s doorstep.
Many in the Australian media are now asking whether Pell’s position in the Vatican is secure. The answer is yes for the time being and, crucially, he has the backing of the Pope. Francis was elected with a mandate of reform and cleaning up the finances has been a key part of this. The cardinal’s role in this work is important: he is ordering departments to submit audits and seeking to value all assets including St Peter’s Basilica. The Pope will not want to see the cardinal go before the work is done.
At the same time, Pell turns 75 - the retirement age of bishops - on 8 June. It is unlikely that he will retire straight away but an exit strategy may be formulated. The problem will be if the commission’s final report is damning of the cardinal’s handling of abuse and say his evidence to them was not credible.
Then the Pope will have the problem of having appointed a reformer whose own house appears not be in order.