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Australian Cardinal George Pell is seen outside the County Court in Melbourne Feb. 27, 2019. (CNS photo/Erik Anderson, Reuters)
March 14, 2019
Catholic News ServiceMELBOURNE, Australia - Cardinal George Pell, 77, Australia’s most powerful Catholic prelate and until recently a top official at the Vatican, was sentenced to six years in prison March 13, three months after a jury convicted him of sexually offending two young boys in the Melbourne cathedral in 1996 and 1997.
Cardinal Pell, who continues to maintain his innocence, will try to appeal the verdict. The court has set June 5-6 as the dates to consider the basis for the appeal.
The jury unanimously found that Cardinal Pell, shortly after being named archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, sexually assaulted two choirboys in the sacristy of Melbourne's St. Patrick's Cathedral. The guilty verdict regarded one count of "sexual penetration," in this case oral sex, and four counts of indecent acts with or in the presence of a minor under 16 years of age.
Judge Peter Kidd said his sentencing decision balanced the seriousness of the crimes against the cardinal's “otherwise blameless life.” He said he deplored the “witch hunt” or “lynch mob” mentality in relation to Cardinal Pell and called the courts “a bulwark against such irresponsible behavior.”
The judge said his sentencing decision also weighed the cardinal’s age and health problems, noting that the stress of imprisonment would exacerbate his hypertension and heart condition.
He said he realized that "each year you spend in custody" would represent a large portion of the remainder of his life.
"You may not live to be released from prison," he said.
The cardinal will be eligible for parole after three years and eight months.
Cardinal Pell was present for the sentencing; he wore an open-necked black shirt with a beige blazer, but no clerical collar.
The assembled victims, supporters, legal teams and media respected the judge's call for silence throughout the proceeding; he spent more than an hour explaining the reasoning behind his sentencing.
Cardinal signs sex offenders’ register
The cardinal displayed no emotion and avoided eye contact during proceedings, before using a handrail to help him stand to hear the final sentence, reporters in the courtroom noted. After sentencing, the cardinal was ordered to sign the Victoria state sex offenders' register before he was taken away in a prison van.
Victims' rights advocates outside the court cheered the verdict but said only a small piece of justice had been done and thousands more victims were waiting for justice.
The judge spent more than one hour explaining the reasoning behind his sentencing and the factors he considered. He repeatedly referred to the cardinal's position of authority over the choirboys and the breach of trust his actions caused.
"You were a pillar of St. Patrick's Cathedral by virtue of your position," Kidd told the cardinal.
"The brazenness of your conduct is indicative of your power over the victims," he said.
The powerful prelate’s actions “involved multiple different activities and actions,” the judge wrote.
“You moved from one victim to the other,” he wrote. “Your dialogue with the two victims during the first episode was both purposeful and responsive. You continued to offend, with callous indifference to t the victims’ obvious distress and objections. At one point during this episode, you even told your victims to be quiet because they were crying.”
The cardinal’s behavior was “so egregious that it is fanciful to suggest that you may not have fully appreciated this,” the judge wrote.
If the cardinal felt his powerful position enabled him to control the situation, such a state of mind would have been “breathtakingly arrogant,” the judge wrote.
‘Absolute dominance’
The judge stressed the “stark” power differential between the cardinal and the choirboys in the structured, disciplined cathedral environment. The cardinal had “absolute dominance” over the choirboys, who were performing to please him and moreover were required to attend choir as part of their school scholarship conditions, the judge wrote.
The judge said one victim suffered “significant and long-lasting impact” on his well-being and ability to form relationships. The second victim is now deceased, although the judge noted that his death was unrelated to the abuse.
The surviving victim, referred to as "victim J" in the judge's sentence, said in a statement read by his lawyer, "I respect what the judge said. It was meticulous, and it was considered."
But, he said, "it is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome."
"I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me. Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal," the statement said.
The victim, who has never been named, also rebutted criticism of the guilty verdict, saying he had spent more than two days giving evidence and was cross-examined by Cardinal Pell's defense lawyer -- vigorously, sources told Catholic News Service -- while the cardinal did not take the stand at all.
"A jury has unanimously accepted the truth of my evidence; Pell chose not to give evidence; the jury did not hear from him," his statement said.
The father of the deceased victim, who is suing Pell, described the sentence as a "joke" in a statement issued by his lawyers.
"Today we witnessed history with one of the world's most senior Catholic figures jailed for child sexual offenses," said Lisa Flynn, representing the father's law firm. "Our client is disappointed with the short sentencing and has expressed sadness over what he believes is inadequate for the crime."
Victims ‘waiting to be heard’
Victims of abuse have been "waiting to feel heard," she said. "Pell's sentencing moves that progress forward, even if only a few small steps. I admire the courage of my client to keep fighting on behalf of his deceased son. To him, this battle is not over," Flynn added.
"The criminal justice system has only partially satisfied our client's pursuit for justice today," she said. "It's now on us as his civil litigators to keep pushing for more just outcomes."
Flynn said her client is suing the cardinal "knowing that civil action has the power to disrupt an institution and impact meaningful change to prevent more tragedies from occurring."
The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Melbourne archdiocese declined to comment on the sentence.
"I would just ask Australians today to get around those who have been victims of child sexual abuse," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Melbourne only minutes before the verdict.
"Let them know we know it happened, that we want to help you be stronger and to survive what is the most abominable you could think that could happen to an individual with a breach of trust," he said.
Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition Labor Party who will face Morrison in an election in May, said, "We can never underestimate the courage and resilience it takes for a survivor of child abuse to seek justice."
Noting that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that survivors were rarely believed, Shorten said, "instead, against the weight and power of both church and the state, they were marginalized, shamed and re-abused."
Conviction appealed on four grounds
The cardinal's legal team has lodged an appeal that will be heard by the Victorian Supreme Court (Appeal Division) on three grounds. The first is that the conviction by a 12-person jury is "unreasonable" because it relied on the "word of one complainant alone."
The second ground for appeal is a complaint from his defense team that it was stopped from using a visual aid it wanted to use to show it was impossible for the sexual activities to have taken place in the back rooms of the cathedral.
A final ground is that there was a "fundamental irregularity" by the judge that saw Cardinal Pell not physically enter a not-guilty-plea in front of the jury. Lawyers said this was likely because he had done so in a previous trial where the jury was dismissed after being unable to reach a verdict, and the judge advised the new jury of the cardinal's plea.
On the last two grounds -- which are of legal error -- the appeals judge can overturn the verdict but must order a fresh trial.
The Australian cardinal took a leave of absence from his post as prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy in June 2017 to return to Australia to face the charges. The cardinal's five-year term as head of the secretariat expired Feb. 24.
On Feb. 27, just after the verdict was published and Cardinal Pell was taken to jail, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced that it was beginning a canonical investigation of the cardinal. The congregation handles the church process for allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
Catholic San Francisco contributed.