Cardinal Pell's Legacy

First Things, 08 June 2021

Long before Cardinal Pell faced his accusers with equanimity and grace—both natural and supernatural—he was an inspiration to many like me

In March 2019, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, emeritus archbishop of Caracas, entered my office and saw above my desk a portrait of Cardinal George Pell. (It hangs beside one of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.) Pell had been incarcerated a few weeks previously after a wrongful conviction on sexual misconduct charges.

He stopped short, as if surprised to see the portrait hanging there after the subject had been convicted in one of the Church’s most notorious sex abuse cases. He looked at it impassively for a long time in silence. It became a bit uncomfortable in the room as I waited for him to say something.

Cardinal Urosa slowly turned, fixed his eyes upon me, pointed his finger, and said in a grave voice, “Do not remove that picture—no matter who tells you!”

I had no intention of removing it. And no one has told me to do so. I would not have removed it in that case anyway. It was a gift from my 2007 visit to Sydney in preparation for World Youth Day. It had become a portrait of a white martyr.

I took the portrait down so that Cardinal Urosa could see the inscription more clearly: “Raymond, Be not afraid! Every blessing to you and your flock. +George Cardinal Pell, Feast of St. John Fisher, 22/06/07.”

When he saw the name of St. John Fisher, Cardinal Urosa smiled with understanding and agreement. He was visiting Kingston, Ontario, as our guest at the annual St. John Fisher Dinner. The first guest to address the dinner was Cardinal Pell in 2008, who spoke with admiration and erudition about the cardinal that Henry VIII unjustly imprisoned. Now the cardinal in the portrait was giving us both inspiration from his own solitary confinement. 

Cardinal Urosa recognized what I knew from over twenty years of conversation with Cardinal Pell. Far from a criminal, Pell was a courageous pastor who was falsely accused precisely because of his unwillingness to compromise on the truths of the Catholic faith. He was, in his person, a “sign of the times,” to quote the dominical phrase employed by St. John XXIII regarding Vatican II.

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