MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Age
June 5, 2019
By Debbie Cuthbertson
If clothes maketh the man, or at least provide an insight into his state of mind, then George Pell’s decision to wear his clerical collar on the first day of his appeal seemed an emphatic statement.
He was last seen in civvies, sans collar, in a fawn jacket and open-necked shirt, as he was sentenced to six years in prison in March, an event that dramatically impugned the already sullied reputation of the Catholic Church.
His donning this time of his clerical uniform of a priest’s collar with black shirt and black jacket was a declaration in itself, a protestation of his innocence and his intention to reinstate his reputation, so mired in scandal after his conviction of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996.
It also shows what’s at stake. Pell, who turns 78 on Saturday, faces a potential Vatican trial and defrocking after more than half a century as a priest, during which he rose to the posts of priest in Ballarat, Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, and latterly a cardinal, one of the global church’s most senior figures.
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