TheTimes8April2020

28 1GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times

Wo r l d

The Pope has condemned “unjust sen-

tences” handed down vindictively

against the innocent after a sex abuse

conviction against the Australian

cardinal George Pell was quashed by

the country’s highest court.

The Vatican’s former No 3 was freed

yesterday, having spent more than a

year in jail, after the court said it had

reasonable doubt over his conviction

for molesting choirboys in Melbourne

in the 1990s.

Hours later Francis wrote on Twitter:

“In these days of Lent, we’ve been

witnessing the persecution that Jesus

underwent and how He was judged

ferociously, even though He was

innocent.”

He added: “Let us pray together to-

day for all those persons who suffer due

to an unjust sentence because someone

had it in for them.”

Cardinal Pell, now 78, was sentenced

to three years and eight months in pris-

on in late 2018 after being found guilty

on five charges of sexual assault against

two 13-year-old boys, with some inci-

dents allegedly occurring after Mass in

the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral,

Melbourne.

It took the evidence of only one of the

boys to convince a jury of the cardinal’s

guilt. The other boy, who had long

before denied being assaulted by the

cardinal, died of a heroin overdose six

years ago.

The Pope did not mention the car-

dinal by name yesterday, but the

Vatican issued a statement saying it

welcomed his acquittal, and that it had

always had “confidence in the Austra-

lian judicial authority”. Cardinal Pell

had “always maintained his innocence

and has waited for the truth to be

ascertained”.

After his release he was driven to the

Carmelite monastery in Melbourne,

where he reiterated in a statement that

he had consistently maintained his

innocence. “I hold no ill will toward my

accuser,” he said. “I do not want my ac-

quittal to add to the hurt and bitterness

so many feel. There is certainly hurt

and bitterness enough.”

The unanimous decision of the seven

judges of the High Court to overturn

the conviction of the highest-ranking

Catholic official ever to be accused of

child abuse has infuriated critics of the

Church. The convictions were upheld

on appeal to the highest court in the

state of Victoria before being over-

turned yesterday because the court

found that there was a “significant pos-

sibility” an innocent person had been

jailed. “The jury, acting rationally on

the whole of the evidence, ought to

have entertained a doubt as to the ap-

plicant’s guilt with respect to each of the

offences for which he was convicted,”

the court ruled.

The decision exposed deep flaws in

the prosecution’s case against Cardinal

Pell, assembled by police and prosecu-

tors in the state of Victoria.

The High Court focused on evi-

dence given by other witnesses who

were inside St Patrick’s Cathedral

when the offences were alleged to

have occurred, and their strong doubts

about whether Cardinal Pell had the

opportunity to commit such crimes in

Vatican welcomes

acquittal of cardinal

jailed for sex abuse

the minutes he had available; also,

whether he could have hastily ma-

noeuvred his heavy robes aside in or-

der to assault the boys.

The star witness in the case told

police in 2015 that he and another

choirboy were indecently assaulted by

the cardinal in 1996 after he caught

them drinking altar wine in the sacris-

ty following Sunday Mass. In 2015 Car-

dinal Pell was archbishop of Melb-

ourne.

The second choirboy told his mother

before he died that he had not been

abused by Cardinal Pell.

The cardinal, who has a doctorate in

philosophy from the University of

Oxford, had to leave his post as the

Vatican’s finance chief and No 3 to the

Pope in 2017 to face trial in Australia.

For much of his first year in prison he

was held in 23-hour solitary confine-

ment at the Melbourne Assessment

Prison because of fears for his safety.

He apparently settled in without

much fuss, co-operating with the

guards. He would spend the long hours

alone in his cell reading books, praying

and writing letters to friends.

In January this year he was moved to

Barwon prison, a high risk and

maximum security jail for males about

50 miles southwest of Melbourne, due

to fears for his security after a drone was

spotted being flown over the Melb-

ourne prison.

Francis appointed Cardinal Pell to

overhaul the Vatican’s finances in 2014.

He had been on a leave of absence from

the post — the formal title of which is

Prefect for the Secretariat of the Eco-

nomy — since 2017. Last year the pope

named a Spanish Jesuit priest, Juan An-

tonio Guerrero Alves, as his successor

Scott Morrison, the Australian prime

minister, said yesterday that the mere

“discussion of these topics brings back

great hurt” for victims, and his

thoughts were “always with them”. He

added: “But the High Court, the highest

court in the land, has made its decision

and that must be respected.”

Thunderer, page 24

Cardinal Pell was released from prison

shortly after the High Court’s ruling

Australia

Bernard Lagan Sydney

Tom Kington Rome

A

n astronaut

who was

alleged by

her

estranged

wife to have

committed the first

“space crime” has

been cleared and her

accuser charged with

lying (Jacqui Goddard

writes).

Summer Worden,

44, allegedly made

false accusations

against Lieutenant-

Colonel Anne

McClain, a US Army

officer and Nasa

astronaut, during a

domestic dispute that

played out last year

while Ms McClain was

aboard the

International Space

Station, 220 miles

above Earth.

Ms Worden is due

to appear in court in

Houston, Texas, this

month. She faces up

to ten years in prison

and a maximum fine

of $250,000 if

convicted.

The couple married

in 2014. Ms Worden

filed for divorce in

2018 after Colonel

McClain, 40, made

but then withdrew

an allegation of

assault against her

partner.

A custody battle

then took place over

Ms Worden’s son, who

was born a year before

the couple met.

Colonel McClain,

who flew 216 combat

Wife gets a rocket

for space crime claim

Analysis

G

eorge Pell’s

acquittal is a

huge let-off for

the Catholic

Church as it

tries to clean its house

after years of damaging

sex abuse scandals (Tom

Kington writes).

After being accused of

“not getting” the gravity

of abuse in the ranks of

the Church, Pope Francis

has admitted that he

underestimated the

problem and won praise

in December for

abolishing the Vatican

secrecy rule that cloaked

its abuse investigations

and which, critics said,

covered up for predators.

The freeing of the

pugnacious Australian

is also a personal

vindication for Francis,

who picked him as his

treasurer and No 3 in

Rome. “Even though they

disagreed on doctrinal

matters, the two always

worked closely together

and Francis trusted his

abilities,” said Austen

Ivereigh, author of

Wounded Shepherd, a

book about Francis.

Cardinal Pell’s job in

Rome has since been

taken by a Spanish Jesuit

priest, and he is unlikely

to return to the Vatican,

said Robert Mickens, an

editor for La Croix

International.

“I don’t think we will

see him back since he is

now three years beyond

retirement age,” he said.

The Vatican was expected

to mount a canonical trial

for the cardinal, but that

may now be a formality

given the Australian

verdict.

Mr Mickens added that

despite the acquittal,

Cardinal Pell’s reputation

has suffered. “A lot

came out during the

investigation that was not

very pretty concerning

the way Pell treated the

victims of sexual abuse,

and he is now facing

some ten civil cases in

Australia, so this is not

over yet,” he said.