AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter
Barney Zwartz | Jul. 25, 2017
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
The circus – as the media have been calling it – began around 5 a.m.* when a large CNN crew arrived outside the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court, though the mass-circulation Herald-Sun already had reporters there to notice that.
By 6 a.m. dozens of local and international media had arrived, followed by supporters of clergy abuse survivors about 7 a.m. They were all hoping to be in Courtroom 2, which has just 37 seats for public and press, at 10 a.m. Security guards had reportedly been there since 9:30 the night before.
Just before 9 the focus of all the attention arrived at court, Cardinal George Pell, the highest-ranked Catholic prelate to face sexual abuse charges. He was flanked by his legal team – including Robert Richter, one of Australia’s leading, and most expensive, barristers – and enclosed by a phalanx of about a dozen police.
At this point the inaccuracy of the epithet “circus” became apparent, for a circus is usually a highly choreographed and well-organised affair, and this was simply a heaving, shouting scrum. The cardinal, in a heavy black overcoat, remained silent as journalists fired a barrage of questions.
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