AUSTRALIA
The Australian

July 27, 2017

JOHN FERGUSON
Victorian EditorMelbourne
@fergusonjw

TESSA AKERMAN
ReporterMelbourne
@TessaAkerman

There has never been a walk like it in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia.

A couple of hundred steps to and from Melbourne Magistrates Court; a cardinal ever-so-slowly navigating blind hate and blind faith on the way to and from his appointment with the law.

For George Pell, the three-­minute struggle from Crockett Chambers, in the heart of Melbourne’s legal precinct, looked deeply ­uncomfortable as scores of media scrambled for the defining image of a one-time church superpower charged with multiple historical sex offences.

The visual untidiness of the media and police scrum was juxtaposed with the image of an old man — he’s 76 — in immaculate clerical attire making his way into the well-ordered court precinct.

Cardinal Pell’s court hearing provided an opportunity to broadcast…