NEW YORK (NY)
Wall Street Journal
April 7, 2020
By Francis X. Rocca and Rachel Pannett
Pell is most senior Catholic cleric ever to be tried for sexually abusing children
The reversal of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on child sex-abuse charges generated support and anger in Australia and around the world and left leaders of the Catholic Church in a difficult position as they continue to deal with a prolonged crisis over clerical wrongdoing.
Cardinal Pell, a former Vatican finance chief, is the most senior Catholic cleric to be tried for sexually abusing children. The unanimous decision by Australia’s High Court on Tuesday to quash his conviction brings this case to a close. But in the court of public opinion, from church officials to government leaders and victims’ advocates, people remain bitterly divided.
For his detractors, Cardinal Pell is a symbol of the abuse crisis. To his supporters, he is a scapegoat who was targeted by enemies of the church.
He served more than 12 months of a six-year prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral while he was the city’s archbishop in the 1990s.
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