Death of Pell could ‘trigger’ survivors

THE death of controversial Cardinal George Pell has been described as a “triggering” event for survivors of child sexual abuse.

But former Catholic priest and activist Julian Punch has warned Cardinal Pell’s death could also reignite buried trauma in the LGBTIQA+ community.

The Hobart-based Mr Punch said he trained with Pell at the Corpus Christi College seminary in Victoria during the late 1950s, and said the young George

Pell had been a bully towards anyone he saw as gay or diverse.

Mr Punch (above) – who came to Tasmania in 1970 before running an experimental parish at Chigwell – said he was never friends with Pell when they were young trainee priests.

He said he resigned as a priest in 1979, largely because of the attitudes of Pell and other conservative bishops – who he said thought of the LGBTIQA+ community as “immoral, abnormal and decadent”.

“They’ve done enormous damage. Our community is very vulnerable,” he said.

“People are today being advised to get counselling if they’ve been sexually abused. That also applies to the LGBTIQA+ community.”

Mr Punch said there had been plenty of gay young men at his and Pell’s seminary – and that Pell “targeted them”.

He said, on the death of George Pell, that gay people should remember the message of the gospel was “one of love”.

“I’d say to any gay person – you’re a child of God, you’ve been created and your sexuality is God’s gift.”

Pell famously refused communion to openly gay parishioners at more than one of his masses.

In December 2018, he was convicted of molesting two Melbourne choirboys during the 1990s, and jailed, but his convictions were ultimately overturned in the High Court two years later.