ROME
Sydney Morning Herald

March 6, 2016

Christopher Lamb

For years he has been one of the big beasts of the Catholic Church.

When in Sydney, Cardinal George Pell would regularly make the gruelling 22-hour flight to Rome so he could keep his Vatican contacts warm and his ear close to the ground.

He impressed popes and fellow cardinals with his forthright, no-nonsense defence of Catholic teaching and, it is understood, would regularly send church leaders press cuttings of articles where he had been criticised in the Australian media for standing up for the faith.

But after four days of forensic cross-examination by the royal commission, where he repeatedly pleaded ignorance about clerical sexual abuse, the cardinal’s stock is no longer rising.

Senior figures in the Vatican were closely monitoring the video-link testimony at the Albergo Quirinale and will no doubt have noted the remark by Gail Furness, counsel…