Pell pushed the right buttons in Rome

By Jenny Tabakoff
7 News
February 25, 2014

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/21692959/pell-pushed-the-right-buttons-in-rome/

Cardinal George Pell has the right background for his new role as Prefect for the Economy of the Holy See, one of the Vatican's most senior roles.

He has the intellect to manage and reform the Vatican's administration and finances, which have been riven with scandal in recent years. And his orthodox and intellectual stance is in line with Pope Francis, to whom he will report directly.

But he's a divisive personality and has been caught up in the child abuse scandal plaguing the church worldwide.

His last public appearance as Archbishop of Sydney is likely to be in the witness box next month at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

His appearance has been long anticipated by survivors and their families after he was criticised for his evidence to a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child abuse last year in which he attempted to separate the actions of individuals from the wider church.

The ensuing report said he had "minimalised and trivialised the issue".

Anthony Foster, whose two daughters were repeatedly raped by a Melbourne priest, described Pell as having a "sociopathic lack of empathy" when they met to discuss the case.

And Pell admitted he made a mistake when he supported one of Australia's worst pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale in court in 1993.

His handling of the abuse scandal hasn't been universally acclaimed and now he inherits another.

Pell, who is expected to begin overhauling the church's economic and administrative activities in March, describes it as "an enormous task" to take over an administration which has been engulfed in allegations of waste, corruption and money-laundering.

But Pope Francis knows him well and obviously believes he is right for the job.

He served with Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, for 10 years when they worked as consultors to the Congregation of the Sacraments, a part of the Curia governing worship. Pell is believed to have backed his former colleague in 2013 when the conclave of cardinals met to elect Benedict's successor.

Born the son of a Ballarat publican in 1941, Pell has risen steadily through the church's ranks since his ordination in 1966.

Arthur Pell, a one-time boxer, was thrilled when his son showed so much talent as a footballer at St Patrick's College in Ballarat, he was offered a contract to play with VFL club Richmond.

But, to his father's great disappointment, he turned to the priesthood instead.

"I had fought against it for a long time," Pell has said. "But I suspected and became convinced that God was calling me to do His work. I've never regretted it, though I still marvel that I made the leap and gave it a go."

Pell continued to play football while studying at Corpus Christi College in Melbourne. In 1963, he moved to Rome to study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University and was ordained at St Peter's Basilica.

He graduated from the Urbaniana University in 1967, moving to Oxford University, where he earned a PhD in church history in 1971. He was also chaplain to the Catholic students at Eton College.

Pell returned to Victoria as assistant priest in the country parish of Swan Hill and later became vicar for education for the Ballarat diocese.

It was here in the early 1970s that Ridsdale and three Christian Brothers taught at St Alipius primary school in East Ballarat, all of whom were found to be pedophiles.

Ridsdale was eventually jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to 46 counts of sexual offences involving 21 victims.

Pell once shared a house with Ridsdale, but insisted he knew nothing at the time about the abuse.

He caused outrage by accompanying Ridsdale to his first court appearance in 1993. He later said that was a mistake and that he "had little idea of the full extent and gravity of his crimes".

He was ordained a bishop in 1987, at a youthful 45. In 1996 he was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne, and in 2001 was appointed Archbishop of Sydney Pell and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

Pell is regarded as a social progressive, a religious conservative and a formidable ecclesiastical politician.

At 72, he remains an imposing figure, slightly stooped but more than 190cm tall.

He has often used his booming voice to speak out on matters that some would see as secular, calling the Greens "anti-Christian" and dismissing "hysterical" claims about global warming: "In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions."

Pell and the prime minister, Tony Abbott, are friends and mutual admirers. Abbott, who once trained for the Catholic priesthood, has said he has sought Pell's "counsel on important matters where I thought he would have insight and wisdom". Pell has said he sees Abbott as "a very decent and competent fellow".

In 2009 Pell provoked a backlash by backing Pope Benedict's view that the solution to the AIDS epidemic lay in the practice of sexual abstinence and monogamy, not in the distribution of condoms.

Pell's elevation to cardinal was seen as part of Pope John Paul II's drive to install conservative clerics to underpin the church's stand on abortion, women priests and gay marriage.

Although he is the nation's most senior Catholic cleric, Pell is not head of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

That's probably because he is a divisive figure, says Chris McGillion, a former Sydney Morning Herald religious affairs editor and co-author of Our Fathers: What Australian Catholic Priests Really Think About Their Lives And Their Church.

"His public profile as a churchman is one that never resonated with the typical Australian culture, but it was one that pushed all the right buttons in Rome," McGillion says.

Pell's abilities have been recognised and rewarded by three popes. McGillion describes him as a "company man", not a populist but someone Rome sees as having done his job as a bishop in defending the church's teachings and canon law.

He may not be a populist figure, but there is admiration for Pell's intellect and achievements.