AUSTRALIA
Red Flag
TOM BRAMBLE
03 JULY 2017
“A fine human being … One of the greatest churchmen that Australia has seen.” That was Tony Abbott on the ABC’s Lateline in 2004 when asked his opinion of cardinal George Pell.
Abbott has not been Pell’s only conservative defender. Every part of the right wing establishment has at one time or another gone in to bat for Australia’s leading Catholic representative. Such support from the heart of the establishment explains Pell’s rapid rise to the third most senior position in the Roman Catholic world.
It’s no secret why the Liberal Party has been so fond of him. If the Church of England was once described as the British Conservative party at prayer, George Pell has been the unofficial spiritual representative of the Australian Liberals.
Pell has been a steadfast supporter of virtually every socially reactionary cause. In response to reports of boys in Catholic schools driven to suicide by homophobia, he said, “Homosexuality is a much greater health hazard than smoking”. He told delegates to the World Youth Day in 2002 that “abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people”, and he is adamantly opposed to contraception and to sex outside marriage. He has denounced concern about climate change as “a symptom of pagan emptiness” and the Greens as “anti-Christian”.
Views such as these cemented Pell’s position as a right wing warrior and won him favour among conservative politicians. He was regularly consulted by the likes of Tony Abbott and reciprocated in kind, telling a Fairfax journalist in 2012 that the two of them have been friends for years: “I admire him as a very decent and competent fellow”.
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