Reflection

Statement from

Archbishop Mark Coleridge

President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference

The news of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on historical child sexual abuse charges has shocked many across Australia and around the world, including the Catholic Bishops of Australia.  The Bishops agree that everyone should be equal under the law, and we respect the Australian legal system.  The same legal system that delivered the verdict will consider the appeal that the Cardinal’s legal team has lodged.  Our hope, at all times, is that through this process, justice will be served.  In the meantime, we pray for all those who have been abused and their loved ones, and we commit ourselves anew to doing everything possible to ensure that the Church is a safe place for all, especially the young and the vulnerable.

26 February 2019

A statement by Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli is available online.  You may also wish to read Truth and justice after the Pell Verdict by Fr Frank Brennan sj and Vatican contrast on Pell, McCarrick driven by doubt about guilt by John L. Allen Jr.