Comment: History will judge George Pell, the cardinal who sought to crush me
I have hesitated in weighing in to add to the thousands of words written this week about the publication, at long last, of the details of the conviction of George Pell last December on child sex abuse charges.
George Pell apologised to me for the legal abuse perpetrated by the church under his watch as Archbishop of Sydney. Before he departed for Rome in 2014, he famously recited a public apology not to me but to the assembled audience at the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing. I had a cup of tea with him. While that was a private meeting and will remain so, I can say that I have never felt any warmth from the man.
As such, he has courted publicity. He will be judged ultimately in the court of public opinion, whatever the outcome of the processes still to ensue in the civil courts. He will deserve his fate. His defenders will maintain their outrage and lament the "anti-Catholic forces" and the "conspirators" who have led to his downfall.
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