As the Vatican announced the death of Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, parishioners began filing into St Patrick’s Cathedral in his home town of Ballarat for morning mass.
“People were very reflective. There was a real sense of quiet,” the church’s administrator, father Ed Moloney, said.
“With the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict, now the death George Pell and the passing of several local parishioners, it shows it doesn’t matter what position you have, we all face death and eternity.”
The cathedral will hold a mass for the repose of Pell’s soul on Thursday, though Moloney acknowledged the news of the cardinal’s death would be difficult for many in the regional Victorian town, which has the unfortunate distinction of being a hotspot of historic child sexual abuse by Australia’s Catholic clergy.
A royal commission hearing in 2015 was told up to 14 priests in Ballarat had sexually abused children, and there have been at least 130 claims and substantiated complaints since 1980. Survivor groups estimate more than 50 suicides in the town are linked to historic sexual abuse by priests.
Colourful ribbons adorn the fence of the cathedral and others in buildings in Ballarat as a mark of respect for the abuse victims. New ribbons were being placed on the fence on Wednesday.
“It’s part of our town’s story now, for the last 20 or so years. It has been a difficult and challenging time for so many,” Moloney said.
Outside the confines of the church, the response was more visceral.
“None of us will be shedding any tears,” Ballarat abuse survivor Phillip Nagle told the Age on Wednesday.
Nagle argued Pell knew more about the abuse that had occurred in the 1970s in Ballarat, given he began his work in the local diocese at the time after being ordained as a Catholic priest in 1966.
The findings of the royal commission stated Pell was “conscious of child sexual abuse by clergy” as early as 1973.
In Melbourne, the father of a deceased ex-choirboy who Pell was accused of sexually abusing while he was archbishop of Melbourne confirmed he will continue his civil action against the cardinal, despite his death.
In 2018 Pell was convicted of molesting the choirboy and his friend – known as witness J – in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
Pell always maintained his innocence and his convictions were quashed in a unanimous decision in the high court in 2020. He served 13 months in jail before being released.
Witness J could not be reached for comment. But his lawyer, Vivian Waller, said Pell will be remembered as the man who presided over the Catholic church in Australia “when the full knowledge of the systemic and widespread nature of child abuse came to the fore”.
“His response to this disclosure of the systemic violation of the human rights of children was inadequate, mean spirited and penny pinching,” Waller said.
Pell accused of ‘cynical manoeuvres’
Maurice Blackburn lawyer John Rule, who has represented victims abused by church clergy, said Pell “knew, actively ignored and probably covered up” child sexual abuse.
When it became too hard to ignore, he introduced mechanisms to reduce compensation payouts, Rule said.
“The Ellis defence, the Melbourne Response – these were incredibly cynical manoeuvres and something that has caused a lot of additional harm,” Rule said.
As archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, Pell established the Catholic church’s Melbourne Response, which offered compensation payments initially capped at $50,000 for victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy. It was abolished in 2021.
When Pell was appointed archbishop of Sydney, the archdiocese used the Ellis defence – named after John Ellis, a former altar boy who had tried to sue the church for abuse he had suffered at the hands of a priest – which asserted there was no Catholic entity that could be sued.
Chrissie Foster, a prominent critic of Pell’s Melbourne Response, whose two daughters were repeatedly raped by the priest Kevin O’Donnell, said the cardinal caused additional suffering to victims.
“Pell’s treatment of childhood clergy sexual abuse victims has caused much pain and heartbreak,” she told the Age.
“He has played a managerial role in an organisation which has a long history of child rape.”
The archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, defended Pell’s response to child sexual abuse. He describes the Melbourne Response as the first scheme of its kind.
“Now we have different processes and that has been a learning experience over the last couple of decades,” he said.
“We will continue to live by those processes that we have put in place, processes that are part of the life of our local church, particularly for the life of those who are victims and survivors of sexual abuse.”
Dr Cathy Kezelman, the president of Blue Knot Foundation, the national centre for complex trauma, said news of Pell’s death will probably be distressing for survivors of child sexual abuse.
“For numerous survivors and their loved ones, Cardinal Pell came to represent the then lack of accountability of many institutions which failed to act in the epidemic of institutional child sexual abuse,” she said.
“His conviction in 2019 for child sexual abuse charges and subsequent release when the charges were quashed created another emotional rollercoaster for many victims which continued for years.
“Cardinal Pell’s death will heighten similar intense feelings and distress, as survivors relive their own journeys in which they battled secrecy, silence and denial. For many, justice, redress and support remain elusive, and every day can remain a struggle just to feel and be safe.”
Back in Ballarat, Moloney said he crossed paths with Pell – then the archbishop of Melbourne – while training to be a priest at Corpus Christi College.
“He was always good company and had a good sense of humour. I suppose he was always known as a strong leader and very full of pride in his ideas – that was his part of his personality,” he said.
“He didn’t let any grass grow under his feet, that’s for sure.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380
