Just days after the death of Pope Benedict XVI, we are compelled to endure the passing of another massively important personality in the life of the Catholic Church, George Cardinal Pell, the retired Archbishop of Sydney and the former head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.  Cardinal Pell, in his youth an Australian Rules Footballer, was a physically imposing man, but his strength of soul was greater still.  

 

As Archbishop, successively, of both Melbourne and Sydney, Pell effectively changed the profile of Catholicism in Australia, bringing that Church into line with the vision of St. Pope John Paul II.  Smart, articulate, bold, at times even a bit swaggering, Cardinal Pell was a confident conversation partner with contemporary secularism in its various manifestations.  One of the highlights of his long ecclesiastical career, by his own admission, was hosting Pope Benedict XVI for World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008.  On that occasion, the world saw that Christian faith was still alive and well in supposedly post-Christian Australia.

 

For all his truly remarkable achievements in the ecclesial arena, the greatest accomplishment of Cardinal Pell came toward the end of his life, when he was forced to deal with accusations of sexual misconduct.  Though the charges were patently absurd, the Cardinal was convicted and sent to prison in Melbourne, indeed to solitary confinement.  In the belly of the beast, his freedom stripped from him, his reputation in tatters, he maintained a serene sense of his innocence and a confident belief in the goodness of God.  If you doubt me on this, read his remarkable prison journal.  In those pages, you will sense a man, beaten down, but not conquered, a Christian in the mold of Thomas More, Maximilian Kolbe, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  

 

I am so grateful to God that Cardinal Pell, finally vindicated through the ministrations of the Supreme Court of Australia, was able to enjoy the last years of his life and to serve as an inspiration to so many around the world. Rest in Peace, Your Eminence.