AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Louise Milligan
When you write a book which details allegations of paedophilia against a man who was once one of the nation’s most powerful people, curious things happen. One of the crazier things is a tiny circle of people who still unquestioningly defend this person, saying he could not possibly have committed acts they know nothing about and accuse you of leftist bias.
How on god’s green earth, you ask yourself, did the prospect that someone might have abused children suddenly become a matter of left and right?
Let this be known: George Pell’s politics are of zero interest to me. But this is Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric. He’s a man who for years was telling the rest of us how to live our lives – not least how to live our sex lives (a matter with which, as I document in Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, he was somewhat preoccupied). He has been accused many times of abusing little kids.
Those accusations now form part of a comprehensive investigation by Victoria Police’s Taskforce SANO. I think that warrants a look. It often occurs to me that this band of defenders, who shrink with each day in number as the allegations pile up, have painted themselves into a corner and now flail about, trying to come up with something to throw back at those who would tumble down their rather shaky house of cards.
But it also strikes me that when you are someone, like they are, who interprets everything in the world from a single, unshakeable, ideological standpoint, you make the erroneous assumption that everyone else does too. Here’s the thing: I don’t. Journalists, unlike people who rant at clouds for a living, are constantly required to look into things that perhaps challenge our world view.
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