Australia's spiritual martyr

Imade the long trip to Australia for the funeral of a mentor and spiritual father who became a dear friend, Cardinal George Pell, a colossus of the Catholic Church, both at home and abroad, and one of the most consequential figures in Australian public life.

The funeral for this fearless Christian pastor was a moment of great national significance; his chosen motto was the frequent biblical exhortation, “Be not afraid!”

“He was never one to mince his words,” said former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. “To the smug, to the venal, to the lazy, to the wayward and to the intellectually sloppy, he was an existential reproach. And because that's all of us, in some way, it's hardly surprising that he became a target.”

His detractors — led by the Australian state-funded TV network ABC — despised him. Finally, the corrupt criminal justice system in the state of Victoria determined to put him in jail.

They succeeded, and he spent 404 days in solitary confinement for a crime that he didn't commit, until exonerated by a unanimous High Court decision, which simply recognized what was manifest to all — that the jury erred, as it took a witness account at face value and failed to consider evidence to the contrary. I have detailed that, and other, monstrous travesties of Australian justice in these pages.

“His recent observation that the climate change movement `had some of the characteristics of a low-level, not-too-demanding pseudo-religion' was the kind of comment that enraged its adherents precisely because it was true,” Abbott said. “And throughout history, that's what people have been martyred for — for telling the unpopular, unpalatable truth.”

Pell was not a martyr who shed his blood; but he was a witness (the Greek word “martyr” means “witness”) who suffered because powerful interests hated what he stood for, and hated that he stood steadfast.

On more than one occasion during the obsequies, which began in Rome where he died on Jan. 10 and concluded in Sydney on Feb. 2, the milestones of a long ecclesial life were pronounced: born in 1941, ordained a priest in 1966, consecrated a bishop in 1987, installed as archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, transferred to the archbishopric of Sydney in 2001, created a cardinal in 2003 and appointed Vatican prefect of economic affairs in 2014.

I wish another date had been added. Imprisoned: Feb. 25, 2019.

There was no disgrace in his imprisonment. The disgrace when an innocent man is jailed belongs to those who jailed him. Indeed, unjust imprisonment throughout history has been a mark of honour.

“In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. That applied in Cardinal Pell's case, and it remains sobering that the state of Victoria had become an unjust society in relation to criminal justice.

Australia has rather loose customs in regards to state funerals. Victoria announced quickly that Pell would not be offered one (which was not surprising, as no religious figure has ever had a state funeral in Australia). Victoria will, however, “farewell” Olivia Newton John, the mediocre actress and distinguished aerobics instructor, with a state funeral later this month.

A new age of imprisoned bishops may be returning. The last one ended not long ago, when a long parade of prelates were incarcerated behind the Iron Curtain. Today, there are bishops confined by the Chinese Communist regime. A bishop was seized last year by the Ortega regime in Nicaragua and is currently being held under house arrest.

It is not shocking in general — Peter and Paul were imprisoned at the beginning. John the Baptist was, too. As was Jesus. Yet it remains shocking in particular, and very particularly because it

IN AN UNJUST SOCIETY THE ONLY PLACE FOR A JUST MAN IS PRISON.

happened here in Australia.

Cardinal Pell was buried with the honours of the church. And one of the highest honours that a corrupt state offers is the incarceration of the innocent.

“Had he died in jail, without the High Court's vindication, today would have been a very different event, even though his innocence would have been no less, had it been known only to God,” said Abbott.

“Still, the presence of so many here from all walks and stations of life, many not Catholic, some not Christian, a few without any religious faith at all, is an overdue tribute and perhaps an admission that we should strive to do right in death to those who have been wronged in life.”

Mob justice, corrupt criminal proceedings, a culture of vengeance and contempt, state-funded campaigns of vilification and demonization — all of this took place in Australia just a few years ago. Vigilance is thus required elsewhere and everywhere.

Pell lived as a free man in prison, refusing to give into bitterness or despair, and emerged harbouring no ill will against his false accuser, publishing three volumes of prison diaries replete with practical wisdom and spiritual guidance. Unjust imprisonment was not only an undesired honour, but he made it a gift, emerging a better Christian disciple and a good shepherd.

Requiescat in pace.