Tributes for Cardinal Pell

AM+DG

Tribute from Tony Abbott – former Catholic Prime Minister

“Australia has lost a great son and the Church has lost a great leader with the passing of George Pell. 

The Cardinal was a committed defender of Catholic orthodoxy and a staunch advocate for the virtues of Western Civilisation. 

As an ecclesiastical and cultural conservative, he attracted praise and blame from all the expected quarters. 

In fact, he was a very pastoral priest who well understood the human stain and was more than capable of empathising with sinners while still counselling against sin. 

His incarceration on charges that the High Court ultimately scathingly dismissed was a modern form of crucifixion; reputationally at least a kind of living death. 

His prison journals should become a classic: a fine man wrestling with a cruel fate and trying to make sense of the unfairness of suffering.

In the end, like Julian of Norwich, his conclusion in faith was that all would be well and all manner of things would be well. 

In his own way, by dealing so equably with a monstrous allegation, he strikes me as a saint for our times. 

Like everyone who knew him I feel a deep sense of loss but am confident that his reputation will grow and grow and that he will become an inspiration for the ages.

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Requiescat in Pace George Cardinal Pell

Family Life iNternational

mail@fli.org.au
George Cardinal Pell was a man of great character and strong Faith. His character was shown through his trials in being falsely accused of heinous crimes and then convicted and jailed for them. He maintained his dignity and resoluteness throughout that ordeal. His Faith shone for all to see in the way he went about conducting himself privately and publicly and in the many excellent initiatives he undertook. There may have been disagreements at times over policy or procedure but always there was respect for him as a man and as a priest. He had a very droll and witty sense of humour and was easy to speak with. He was at one time an advisor to Family Life International Australia (then known as Human Life International) and was very much involved in trying to foster greater cooperation within pro-life, pro-family organisations. He will be greatly missed. Requiescat in Pace.

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(Below is a) Great Article on our Beloved Cardinal George Pell RIP. he had a courageous Spirit Who could not be cancelled.  He has left us to join Benedict – both gone to their Eternal Rest – two magnificent faithful Giants in the Catholic Church!

The excerpts from the original article are just a tiny snapshot of the contents.

Read the very comprehensive article here: https://mercatornet.com/cardinal-george-pell-a-courageous-spirit-who-could-not-be-cancelled/82591/

“Cardinal George Pell, a courageous spirit who could not be cancelled

Australia’s foremost Catholic cleric was a model of resistance to the hostility of a post-Christian world.

“Twitter has been running hot with hatred after the death of Australia’s Cardinal George Pell in Rome after minor surgery. If you can tell the quality of a man by the venom of his enemies, George Pell was indeed a mighty figure.    …

“Cardinal Pell died an innocent man,” Chris Merritt, The Australian’s Legal Affairs Contributor, said. “This might come as a terrible shock to those who were gripped by the frenzy – particularly in Victoria – that effectively amounted to a lynch mob before his trial and unsuccessful appeal in the Victorian Court of Appeal.

“The fact that an old, sick man spent a long time in prison and was eventually shown by the highest court in the land to be innocent …

What will history say about George Pell?

Tony Abbott, a former Australian Prime Minister got it right: “In his own way, by dealing so equably with a monstrous allegation, he strikes me as a saint for our times. Like everyone who knew him I feel a deep sense of loss but am confident that his reputation will grow and grow and that he will become an inspiration for the ages.”

The Cardinal modelled the courage which is going to be necessary in a woke society for anyone who takes Christian morality and convictions seriously. …

Cardinal Pell will not be farewelled in a haze of bland platitudes. As he said in his homily at the state funeral of B.A. Santamaria, a singularly important figure in Australia and Australian Catholicism: “We are told that the sure mark of the false prophet is that all people speak well of him. In death, as in life, Bob Santamaria has triumphantly escaped such a fate”.  …

… Pell’s brusque manner was a handicap under the harsh spotlight of the media. …

Loyalty

And then there was Pell’s unshrinking orthodoxy and loyalty to John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He was a Catholic priest and later a bishop in a culture which was drifting, day by day, further and further from its Christian foundations.

In modern Australia, he was a defiant Athanasius contra mundum on contraception, divorce, homosexuality, women priests, married priests, condoms, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage and other controverted issues.

In 1998 he visited Rome with other Australian bishops. The “papal hit squad”, as newspapers called the Vatican officials, rebuked the delegation about a number of points, including widespread use of “general confession”. It was left to Pell to defend the statement of conclusions back home.   …

Spiritual depth

Pell’s time in prison showed his mettle. He used his time to write a three-volume journal of his spiritual reflections. They reveal a man with a deep Christian faith and a genuine piety. He had suffered a colossal injustice but he never gave in to bitterness and spite.”