Cardinal George Pell R.I.P.

(Above and below) At the Sacra Liturgia Conference in Menlo Park, June, 2022. The presentation he gave there was unforgettable.

He died today in Rome at age 81.

I only saw Cardinal Pell once – at the 2022 Sacra Liturgia Conference in Menlo Park sponsored by Archbishop Cordileone. Cardinal Pell’s address was easily the most memorable presentation at this event. He spoke of his imprisonment, of his inabilty to celebrate Mass and of his trust in the Lord despite all adversities. His physical presence alone was impressive; his direct and unmannered eloquence was moving. He later celebrated a beautiful Novus Ordo Mass.

Cardinal Pell indeed had much to suffer. He was called to Rome to address the financial affairs of the Vatican which have been a source of scandal and disgrace since the late 1970’s. He was forced out relatively quickly with the involvement of politically connected characters who themselves were subsequently dismissed and are now facing a criminal trial. Cardinal Pell’s actions were vindicated all too soon.

Subsequently Pell was a victim of the clerical abuse hysteria, which the media (with their Catholic allies) selectively direct against political adversaries. Cardinal Pell was convicted in Australia after a preposterous trial, forced to spend a year in solitary confinement – only to be completely exonerated on appeal. That hasn’t stopped the media from presenting Pell, after his death, as a “controversial,” tainted figure. One thinks of the German media storm and resulting legal action againt Pope Benedict in 2022. Pope Benedict has also continued to be vilified as an alleged facilitator of clerical sexual abuse. Yet, far more recent and well-founded revelations regarding prominent figures still in authority remain, to large extent, unexplored…..

As for Cardinal Pell’s relationship with Catholic Traditionalism, I can only relay the following news from Michael Matt (the leader of many years of the American chapter of the Pentecost Chartres pilgrimage):

I think it is more than appropriate for us to remind our readers that one of George Cardinal Pell’s last public acts was to let it be known that he’d accepted an invitation from Notre-Dame de Chretiente to offer the Traditional Latin Mass in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres on Pentecost Monday for the close of the 2023 Pilgrimage to Chartres, France. Given the controversy surrounding Traditionis Custodes and the Vatican’s attempted suppression of the Latin Mass, this was indeed an act of courage and fidelity to Tradition on the part of His Eminence. Cardinal George Pell R.I.P.