AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
November 17, 2012
Mike Carlton
Grave of mien, choosing each word with studied care, every inch a prince of Rome, Cardinal George Pell defied the accusers.
The sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests had been exaggerated, he told a news conference in Sydney on Tuesday. There was a “press campaign” against the church, with “general smears that we are covering up and moving people around”.
“We object to being described as the only cab on the rank … because there is a persistent press campaign focused largely on us, that does not mean we are largely the principal culprits.”
With those few sentences, Australia’s most senior Catholic churchman flung aside any lingering shred of moral authority attached either to his person or his office as the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney. There were one or two perfunctory remarks about “shame” delivered in that familiar treacly baritone, but that was it. Strip away the apostolic airs and he could have been a flack for James Hardie assuring the world that the dangers of the company’s asbestos products had been rather overblown.
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