While many with the Catholic Church remember him as compassionate, he's reviled by many others inside and outside religious spheres.
The sudden death of Cardinal Pell this week has been met with mixed responses, and he leaves behind a divided legacy, which is only partially explained by the traditional left/right culture war.
Yet he is publicly reviled by many others, both inside and outside religious spheres. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made negative findings against Pell. And his death has been triggering for many survivors, victims and complainants of child sexual abuse in the Australian Catholic Church.Dr Rosemary Sheehan is Emeritus Professor at Monash University in the Department of Social Work, and she has a particular interest in child welfare and the law.
"I imagine for those who have been harmed by the spectre of sexual abuse by the clergy, the death of Cardinal Pell is going to trigger for them, again, that misery and that distress," she says. However she says there were aspects of Pell's work, particularly in social services, that don't fit neatly into the conservative mould.
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