News Desk
SYDNEY: The funeral of former Vatican official and Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, saw a clash between mourners and protesters.
Cardinal Pell died in Rome last month, aged 81, amid complications from hip surgery.
Dignitaries, including former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, attended the funeral mass held in Cardinal Pell’s Australian homeland at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, where Cardinal Pell served as Archbishop for over a decade. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet did not attend the occasion and instead sent delegates.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, led the requiem mass and spoke of Cardinal Pell’s legacy as a “giant of the Catholic Church in Australia” who had been wrongly demonized.
In a message read to the congregation, Pope Francis paid tribute to the former Cardinal’s dedication to the gospel and the Church.
However, outside the cathedral, child abuse survivors who felt failed by Cardinal Pell tied ribbons to the church fence as a tribute to the victims of the Church abuse crisis.
Cardinal Pell, who was known for his strong support for traditional Catholic values, rose to a prominent figure in the Catholic Church in a career spanning over six decades. He served as Archbishop in Melbourne and Sydney before being appointed Vatican Treasurer in 2014, where he was considered the third-ranked official in the Church.
Child abuse charges on Cardinal Pell
In 2017, he returned to Australia for a trial on child sexual abuse charges. The jury found him guilty of abusing two boys in 2018; however, the High Court of Australia later overturned the verdict in 2020.
Despite always maintaining his innocence, Cardinal Pell’s reputation in Australia was tarnished by the Church’s mishandling of the child sexual abuse crisis, with many Australians feeling he bore some responsibility as a leader.
