“Staggering Arrogance”

Finally, someone is going to prison for one of the greatest crime sprees in history. Australian Cardinal George Pell was just sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing two 13 year old boys in a sacristy after Sunday mass in 1996. He was convicted of five counts in December. Under Australian law, the trial was conducted under what’s called a “super injunction” which essentially is a secret trial. This means there was a total news blackout on the trial. The first trial ended in a hung jury. Pell was tried again, and convicted. The conviction was only unsealed two weeks ago. Pell was one of the most powerful cardinals in the Catholic Church. In addition to being the archbishop of Melbourne, he was the pope’s chief financial officer. He is a big fish.

While the trial was conducted in secret, the sentencing hearing was broadcast on live television. Judge Peter Kidd laid out in ugly detail what Pell did to two young boys just steps from the altar where he just celebrated mass. The 77 year old Pell was described as “stone faced”. The main complainant had testified that he and another boy had sneaked into the sacristy. Pell caught them. The victim said Pell forced him to perform oral sex on him, and Pell touched himself and the other boy. The victim testified Pell molested him again weeks later. The judge said during the incidents the boys were “crying and sobbing”, but Pell told them to keep quiet. The complainant said he appreciated that the court acknowledged his pain as a child, but he added, “However, there is no rest for me.” The second victim didn’t get any satisfaction. He’s dead. His family plans to sue Pell and the church. Pell will be eligible for parole in three years and eight months.

As is often the case with serial molesters, there was history of allegations against Pell going back to when he was in the seminary. He was almost charged with other incidents involving molesting boys in a pool and a lake. The judge ruled some evidence in those cases inadmissible. Pell’s sentencing comes just weeks after Pope Francis’ meeting at the Vatican with a hundred bishops from around the world to discuss the issue of sexual abuse by priests and coverups by bishops. I emphasize the word “discuss”. There was no immediate action. Some bishops from Asia and African don’t even consider sexual abuse by the clergy as a big problem. The meeting of mostly old, powerful men proved once again how out of touch the leaders of the church are with the terror they have allowed to go on for decades, if not centuries. For them, it was always about protecting their own and their power.

The church is a huge bureaucracy that is incapable of moving quickly. The meeting on sexual abuse should have taken ten minutes. When you get a complaint about a priest, or anyone else abusing children, you pick up the phone and call the police. That’s what any parent would do. Judge Kidd made a point of condemning Pell for “sustained offending” and called his “graphic sexual misconduct” egregious. That describes years of  depraved behavior by priests and the bishops that were suppose to be supervising them. Judge Kidd went even further, and cut right to heart of matter. He looked right at Pell and said, “Your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance.”  The perfect example of how absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

Pell served 404 days in solitary confinement. His conviction was overturned by Australia’s High Court. He died in January, 2023. He was 81.