Church Persecuted October 20
Church Persecuted Sept 22
The late George Cardinal Pell served 404 days in prison for an act that he could not have
committed. He was finally found not guilty by the Australian Supreme Court. His three volume
Prison Journal provides not only an understanding of the persecution that he suffered, but also
his insights about what it means to live as a Catholic. Here is an excerpt from Volume 2: The
State Court Rejects the Appeal, pp. 104-109.
“Today, the appeal judges found against me, rejecting my appeal 2 to 1. The chief justice of the
Supreme Court and the chief judge of the Court of Appeal, both civil lawyers, found against me,
and in a minority dissenting opinion, Justice [Mark] Weinberg upheld my appeal.
“I was astonished and badly upset. I could not believe judges could come to a decision upholding
the jury after studying the evidence…” Justice Weinberg “acknowledged that the charges against
me were implausible: an archbishop, still in his vestments, in a sacristy after Mass in his
cathedral, grossly violating two young servers whom he did not know, at a time when the sacristy
was full of other servers (adults) and he was with his master of ceremonies on the front steps of
the cathedral…
“I know that misfortune is not a sign of divine disapproval and, indeed, can be a sign of God’s
special love, as long as God realizes how weak and imperfect I am, as well as being someone
who is keen on a comfortable life and even a quiet one. However, I will take what comes,
perhaps becoming more like Job and complaining a bit, and try to use it for God’s good purposes
– for the Church, victims, family, and friends…
“Psalm 54 has been helpful: He (God) will deliver my soul in peace in the attack against me: for
those who fight me are many, but he hears my voice.”
September 15
The late George Cardinal Pell served 404 days in prison for an act that he could not have
committed. He was finally found not guilty by the Australian Supreme Court. His three volume
Prison Journal provides not only an understanding of the persecution that he suffered, but also
his insights about what it means to live as a Catholic. Here is an excerpt from Volume 2: The
State Court Rejects the Appeal, p. 100.
“In this journal, I have defended what I see as Gospel Christianity in the Catholic tradition…
What is the basis for Christian living in successive generations, now spanning almost two
millennia? Is our activity important for salvation? Why is there such moral confusion even in the
Catholic Church?
“The basic moral truths have been given to us by Christ and the apostolic tradition, which builds
on the Old Testament. There is development but from within the moral tradition, so that Christ’s
teaching in the Sermon on the Mount does not discard the Ten Commandments, just as we are
not entitled to discard Christ’s explicit moral teaching, not entitled to start ‘from the position that
it is not what Christ said or did that matters, but how he related to his context.’
“If we get the basics wrong, then it is inevitable that specific errors follow, often worsening or, as
we proceed, arriving at the autonomy of secular human values, spelled out in cultural theory or
intellectual Marxism.
“…Our task is to present the Catholic moral tradition as a life-force, sometimes hard and
challenging, but especially enriching and liberating as our social capital declines and identity
politics strives to limit free speech…”