AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
November 23, 2012
Andrew West
ABC radio presenter and columnist
George Pell is an easy target for both liberal critics in the Catholic Church and secularist tormentors in the media.
In his recent, defensive press conference, he suggested the church was being singled out as the only institutional offender in the child sex abuse crisis. It was grist to the mill of those who are convinced the cardinal Archbishop of Sydney is making excuses for clerical crime.
His insistence that the rite of confession must remain a secret between confessor and penitent – no matter how evil the offence that is revealed – was seemingly more evidence that he was putting the church’s reputation and customs ahead of abuse victims. As his brother bishop Geoffrey Robinson conceded, it was painful.
Dr Pell is an old-fashioned prelate. He not only toes the Vatican line but, as a key adviser on education, ministry and doctrine, he has helped shape it. One of Dr Pell’s long-standing – but not unquestioning – friends calls him “a company man”. RMIT University professor Des Cahill has known the cardinal for 50 years. Professor Cahill left the Catholic priesthood in the 1970s to marry and begin a distinguished career as an academic psychologist.
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