Cardinal George Pell: I Have "Full Backing" of Pope Francis
By Nick Miller
Pope Francis and Cardinal Pell met face to face at the Vatican on Monday, just hours after the Australian cleric's first session giving evidence by video link to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Corriere said it was "difficult to imagine" that the interview would not have touched on the cardinal's video evidence to the commission which took place late on Sunday night, Rome time. The meeting, and the hearing, come amid growing speculation about the cardinal's future. On June 8 this year Cardinal Pell turns 75 – the age at which cardinals and bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignations to the Pope.
Veteran Vatican observer John L. Allen jnr has written that the June 2016 date will be a test of where Cardinal Pell stands with the Pope and "whether Francis uses his birthday as an excuse to make a swift transition". Two weeks ago, on a plane back from Mexico, Pope Francis told reporters that any bishop who had moved a suspected paedophile priest from parish to parish should resign. Francis said clerical abuse was a "monstrosity".
A French priest recently told new bishops at a Vatican course they didn't have to report suspected abuse to police. Asked about the matter, Pope Francis said "a bishop who changes parish [for a priest] when he detects paederasty is reckless and the best thing he can do is present his resignation. Clear?" Cardinal Pell's role in advising on the placement of priests is expected to come under the microscope during the video hearing for the Commission.
In her opening address, senior counsel Gail Furness said Cardinal Pell had, while a priest in Ballarat, been a consultor to Bishop Ronald Mulkearns? with responsibilities including the appointments of priests to particular parishes. Later, as an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne he had "assisted the archbishop on matters including the placement of priests". On Monday Cardinal Pell told the commission the French priest's advice on reporting offenders had been "unfortunate" and had been rejected by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Cardinal Pell said the position of the Vatican on reporting obligations of the clergy was "that the law of the land should be followed". Asked if sexual misconduct against children by notorious paedophile priest Monsignor John Day had been raised at any consultor meeting he had attended in Ballarat, Cardinal Pell said "I don't think the matter was ever raised in the terms in which you are describing it". La Stampa's "Vatican Insider" journalist Andrea Tornielli told Fairfax that plenty of cardinals remained in senior Vatican positions past 75. It was "entirely in the hands of the Pope" whether their "automatic" resignation was accepted. He said Cardinal Pell was a high probability to continue for another couple of years, considering his close alliance with Pope Francis and his crucial role in reforming the Vatican, rooting out corruption and waste. "The Pope could decide to give him another year or two years ... we have to wait and see," he said – on what comes up in the commission hearings, and then how Cardinal Pell stands on the key June date. Tornielli said the commission had not yet presented any specific allegation that would cause trouble for Cardinal Pell. John L. Allen jnr wrote last year that the Pope has "had Pell's back" in previous critical moments when he came under attack, over alleged overspending in his new offices and in June 2015 over his record on the clergy sex abuse scandals in Australia.
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