09 FEBRUARY 2023
www.therecord.com.au
Edition #419
CARDINAL PELL: LION OF THE CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA LAID TO REST
A blur of white robes demonstrates priests and bishops processing into Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral for the funeral and burial Mass of Cardinal George Pell. PHOTO:GIOVANNI PORTELLI.
By Adam Wesselinoff, Debbie Cramsie and Marilyn Rodrigues
The Catholic Church of Australia has last week Thursday 2 February farewelled Cardinal George Pell, in a funeral at times solemn, reverent, defiant and sorrowful, shot through with wry Australian humour, and attended by mourners from all walks of life. The Cardinal remained a sign of contradiction until the very end, with protesters’ shouts of “George Pell, go to Hell” clearly audible inside St Mary’s Cathedral at several points, and the congregation bursting into spontaneous applause and shouts of “hear, hear” during the homily and eulogies. After the 2 February Pontifical Mass of Christian Burial at Australia’s mother church, the Cardinal’s remains were interred in the cathedral crypt alongside his predecessors. In his homily for the occasion, Sydney
Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP described the cardinal as a “lion of the Church”, a “giant of a man with a big vision” who proclaimed the Gospel “shamelessly, vehemently, courageously to the end”. “He had a big heart, too, strong enough to fight for the faith and endure persecution, but soft enough to care for priests, youth, the homeless, prisoners and imperfect Christians,” Archbishop Fisher said. “Ultimately that heart gave out, but only after more than 80 years of being gradually conformed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Cardinal Pell’s brother, David Pell, gave the principal eulogy, describing him as “a prince of the Church, a good and holy man, and a proud Australian”. Mr Pell told mourners about the toll “the relentless campaign to smear George’s life” had taken on his family, and spoke for a final time in his brother’s defence, saying his
“regularly reported lack of sympathy for victims is simply untrue”. “We sympathise with the legitimate vic tims and are in complete abhorrence at the criminals. Our own family has not been immune to this evil,” he said. Mr Pell also spoke at length about his brother’s 404 days of solitary confinement and eventual acquittal, praising both the guards and prisoners at Barwon Remand Centre for the humane and dignified way they treated his brother. “By the time George and his team found 1.2 billion Euro that was not accounted for, his fate was sealed,” Mr Pell said. He insisted his brother was a “friend of Pope Francis” who had been given a warm welcome and an entourage of Swiss Guards by the Pope upon his return to Rome. Full Text available at
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