Do not hail Pell a saint, says victim
TASMANIAN survivors of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy are “very, very angry” that George Pell is being posthumously hailed as a “saint”.
Beyond Abuse founder and chief executive Steve Fisher, who was preyed upon as a teenager by an Anglican priest, said politicians and senior Catholics needed to stop describing Pell as “a wonderful man of integrity”.
“I would say to the cardcarrying politicians and people in power – have a bit of respect for the survivors and what they went through,” Mr Fisher said.
Mr Fisher said it should not be forgotten a federal royal commission found Pell had long turned a blind eye to the actions of Catholic pedophile priests such as Gerald Ridsdale, and knew they were moved from parish to parish to protect the church’s reputation. He said Tasmanian survivors of clergy abuse were saddened by Pell’s death – but not for the man himself.
“The reason that they’re sad is that he will now never be brought to justice for what the royal commission found him liable for and what a court of law found him liable for,” Mr Fisher said.
“They’re very sad, the people I’ve spoken to, but only for that fact. They will never receive justice and Pell will never pay for what it was proved that he did.”
Mr Fisher said it was “really disgraceful” that though Pell was found guilty of child sexual abuse by a jury of his peers in 2018, he used his power and status to appeal the decision “until he got the result that he wanted”, with his convictions overturned by the High Court in 2020.
“When you put that all together, it leaves a really sour taste in victims’ mouths,” Mr Fisher said.
Following Pell’s sudden death on Wednesday morning, Australian time, former prime minister Tony Abbott described the Vatican Cardinal as “a saint for our times”.
Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Pell had been “an important intellectual figure” and a “towering presence” in the church.
Closer to home, Hobart Archbishop Julian Porteous described Pell as a man of “deep personal faith with a profound love for the church” who “was to suffer greatly” in his later years.