LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail
March 3, 2019
Sydney’s top Catholic urged parishioners to be patient as Cardinal George Pell’s case heads for an appeal, at the first mass since the conviction became public.
Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher said the process was in God’s hands and people should not be ‘too quick to judge’ either way.
‘If we are too quick to judge we can end up joining the demonisers or the apologists, those baying for blood or those in denial,’ he said on Sunday morning.
‘Our readings remind us that things are not always what they seem, that we must look beneath the surface and allow truth and justice to unfold in God’s good time.’
Pell was on Wednesday remanded in custody two months after he was found guilty of raping a choirboy and molesting another in Melbourne in 1996.
Archbishop Fisher told worshipers at St Mary’s Cathedral that unlike others he would not comment on the substance of the case, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
He said final conclusions shouldn’t be drawn until the Court of Appeals judges reviewed the case and decided whether to quash his conviction.
‘Amidst the heated emotions of the present I also pray for public calm and civility,’ he said.
Archbishop Fisher, who replaced Pell in his role when the 77-year-old was promoted to cardinal, admitted the case would shake the faith of many Catholics.
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