A Farewell to Cardinal George Pell

What a terribly sad start to 2023 it has been with the death of Pope Benedict XVI swiftly followed by the sad news last night that George Cardinal Pell had died as a result of complications after a hip replacement. He was 81.

Pell is one of only two cardinals I have met so far in my life and the only one I have had the honour of sharing a pint of beer or two with. Compared with a lot of the people I have encountered in similar situations; Pell was incredibly normal and relaxed. He was every inch a priest but struck me as someone who was honest and straightforward, deeply committed to his faith and comfortable and competent defending it.

He exuded confidence, the kind of quiet confidence that comes from Christ. His eyes sparkled with intelligence and interest, he was engaging and articulate and I wanted to be on his side.

On the occasion of our meeting, back in 2014, Cardinal Pell provided an excellent example of the principle perhaps best embodied in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI: if the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed. He spoke clearly and firmly both in his homily and in a Q&A session he was involved in.

He explained how Catholics today are in the minority and under pressure from a culture which advocates drug use, condones a proliferation of pornography, and the use of the contraceptive pill. Pell said that, in order to combat these challenges, we must be clear about what we believe as well as prepared to take the intellectual battle to society. To fail to do this, he warned, risks losing our social capital all together. Again, echoes of Ratzinger here who fought for a Christian culture, especially in Europe.

Sitting with a pint, I questioned him about the internal pressures which were, at that time, seemingly only nascent in Rome. There was still great hope following the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, although we were reeling at his strange resignation. Cardinal Pell had just been made the head of the Vatican Secretariat for the economy. I expressed some concerns about some of things the new pope had done. The Cardinal was equally clear— don't worry about that, leave it to me. Cardinal Pell suggested that in this we might learn from the Benedictines who were not great disputants, but rather great builders. So let us build and leave the disputation to others. He acknowledged the pains that the faithful experience, but quoted Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, in that we might consider it as a fruit bush which, treated with violence, will blossom all the more fruitfully for the pruning.

The controversy that latterly embroiled him in his home country concerned allegations which were patently absurd, however the Cardinal was convicted and sent to prison in Melbourne and even confined to solitary confinement. Was this his finest hour? In the darkness of that prison cell, stripped of his dignity, his freedom and with his reputation in tatters, he yet maintained a stoic and serene sense of his innocence and a confident belief in the goodness of God. If you doubt it, read his prison journal where he records his struggle. It is a struggle which takes place in love and hope despite the desperateness of his situation. His faith was rewarded when the Supreme Court of Australia quashed his conviction and he was able to return to Rome and live out his last days in service to the Church he loved.

Cardinal Pell's conviction, later quashed by the Australian Supreme Court, is an important allegory for the Church's relationship with the modern world which seeks to master and control the Church & the Gospel, to lock it away, to devalue it, to excoriate it, discredit it, devalue it. Yet, despite its best efforts, despite all its glamour, fake moralising & false allegations, it cannot. Pell always said we have to boldly engage with the culture, to argue for the Gospel despite the criticism from secular culture. He believed to fail to engage with the arguments was to lose all rights or ability to 

Cardinal Pell was a hero of the faith and a voice for faith and reason which will be sorely missed. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.