Cardinal George Pell and formerly the Vatican’s top finance minister, has died aged 81.
Pell was the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney before becoming the Secretariat of the Economy for the Vatican in 2014, regarded as the third highest position in the hierarchy. It was the highest position ever held by an Australian.
Pell is reported to have died due to complications from hip replacement surgery, according to Vatican news outlet EWTN.
The current Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, said the news was a “great shock to all of us.”
“Please pray for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Pell, for comfort and consolation for his family, and for all of those who loved him and are grieving him at this time,” he wrote on Facebook.
Cardinal Pell made headlines in 2017-18 when he was accused and convicted of molesting two teenage choirboys at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during his time as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
The conviction was later overturned and quashed by all seven justices of the High Court of Australia, who found the Victorian Supreme Court and Court of Appeal did not entertain enough “doubt” on the veracity of 23 witness testimonies.
Pell spent 13 months behind bars and returned to Rome. He maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal.
Pell Case Highlighted Problems with Australian Media
Australian media outlets were later charged and pleaded guilty to breaching a suppression order on reporting on the trial—a normal practice to maintain the integrity and fairness of the trial.
Originally a plea deal was offered in which the prosecutor would drop a total of 58 charges against the journalists, including the charge of sub judice contempt, which carries a potential jail sentence. This resulted in the media companies themselves pleading guilty to 21 charges and can expect fines of up to $500,000 apiece.
Over a million dollars in fines were handed out against several publications, including the Herald Sun, The Australian Financial Review, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser in Adelaide, the Geelong Advertiser, and The Courier Mail in Brisbane.
Other media companies include Sydney radio station 2GB, Channel Nine (which featured coverage in its Today show), Mamamia, and Business Insider.
At the time, Nine Entertainment spokesperson said the decision to enter a guilty plea was “important to protect our individual people who were simply going about their jobs.”
“It is a regrettable but necessary decision that media companies enter guilty pleas to avoid the threat of criminal convictions and jail sentences that the Victorian Department of Public Prosecutions pursued …,” the spokesperson said.
Experts Argue Media Undermined Presumption of Innocence
Dr. Augusto Zimmermann, head of law at Sheridan College in Perth, said the media had “no choice” but to plead guilty.
“This admission was a wise legal manoeuvre because, in exchange, prosecutors have dropped all other charges, including against individual journalists,” the former member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia told The Epoch Times.
However, Zimmermann was critical of Pell’s media coverage, saying before his first trial in 2018, Pell had become the “most loathed person in the nation.”
“There is a growing rise in Australia of anti-religious, especially anti-Catholic sentiment … Catholic priests are becoming the targets of a vilification campaign that may sometimes involve unsubstantiated accusations and expensive court proceedings,” he said.
Commentator Rocco Loiacano said Pell’s case was an example of ongoing problems with media outlets undermining the presumption of innocence for high-profile individuals, particularly if it helps propagate ongoing social trends.
“Unfortunately, in recent times, the media has, by and large, ignored the idea of the presumption of innocence—the Christian Porter saga last year being one recent and troubling example,” he wrote in The Epoch Times.
“However, perhaps the most egregious was that in relation to Cardinal George Pell, who was vilified by sections of the media, some politicians, and the wider community, not only during his trial for alleged sexual abuse and subsequent appeals but even before.”
From The Epoch Times