• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Cardinal George Pell is pictured in a screen grab during an interview that aired April 14, 2020, on Sky News Australia. (CNS screen grab)

Cardinal Pell tells U.S. Catholics: ‘We rely on you’

August 17, 2020
By Peter Rosengren
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, World News

SYDNEY (CNS) — In an exclusive interview prerecorded and aired at a U.S. conference, Cardinal George Pell reminded his audience how important the church in the U.S. is for world Catholicism and Western civilization.

U.S. Catholicism “is vitally important for us in smaller countries, we rely on you for your scholarship, your leadership … the pastoral strategies that you implement and prove to be successful will be watched and imitated by us,” he said.

Despite the scandals in church leadership, which had been “deeply wounding,” many parts of the church in the U.S. are offering a way forward in the present crisis. He named U.S. bishops such as Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and the late Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago as outstanding examples of church leadership and vision in the present era.

The 30-minute interview was conducted in Sydney and shown Aug. 16 at a conference organized by the NAPA Institute, a California–based think tank focusing on the Catholic Church. Cardinal Pell spoke to Monica Doumit, columnist for The Catholic Weekly, about issues ranging from Vatican finances to progress against clerical child abuse in Australia to watching U.S. televangelists from prison.

The cardinal, former head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, spent 405 days in prison on charges of abuse dating from 1996. In April, Australia’s Supreme Court ruled in relation to all charges of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys, “there is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted.”

Cardinal Pell, who left the Vatican to return and face the charges, told The Catholic Weekly “the crooks” have largely been run out of Vatican financial institutions or denied access to them, but vigilance is required to prevent corruption and inefficiencies that have been endemic in the past.

Australian Cardinal George Pell relaxes on the grounds of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Sydney April 9, 2020. Cardinal Pell was released from prison April 7 after the High Court of Australia unanimously overturned the December 2018 jury verdict that found him guilty of molesting two choirboys in 1996. (CNS photo/courtesy Archdiocese of Sydney)

He said the coronavirus pandemic had exacerbated an-already serious financial problem.

Cardinal Pell said his successor at the Vatican told him the Vatican was losing AU$70 million ($US50.4 million) a year before the pandemic struck. Meanwhile, the Vatican Museums, which were closed for three months and reopened with limited visitors, would normally bring in revenue of at least AU$80 million a year.

Meanwhile, he said, it is public knowledge that the Vatican has “a looming, very considerable deficit in the pension fund — and nearly every other country in Europe has that, too — but that’s not much consolation.”

“Now I’m well out if it, I’m two or three years behind what people are thinking, but at least in the public sense, I haven’t seen any suggestions that would really address what is a significant financial challenge,” he said.

Reiterating comments made earlier this year to Sky News, Cardinal Pell said there was no denying clergy sex abuse crimes were committed and had been poorly handled by church authorities, “but in Australia we broke the back of the offending in the middle ’90s.” He said that had even been acknowledged by counsel assisting the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse during its proceedings.

Catholics would be astonished to know how little offending had actually occurred in recent decades, he said.

“I heard of a public meeting where a friend of mine who actually knew what was going on asked the authorities in that diocese ‘how many offenses in that diocese have you had in Catholic institutions this century?’ And there were none or almost none. And the Catholic audience there was stupefied,” he told The Catholic Weekly.

During his time in prison, since he was unable to offer the Mass for the intentions of others as he ordinarily would, he instead prayed the Memorare, a prayer seeking the intercession of Mary, as individual requests came to him.

“In jail you’ve got no excuse that you’re too busy to pray,” he said. “I had a regular prayer routine of the breviary, meditation and I followed spiritual reading generally every day. And on Sunday, I watched Mass For You At Home at the impossible hour of six o’clock in the morning.

“Then I watched the American evangelists Joseph Prince from California and Joel Osteen from Texas. And in my journal I’d make a theological critique of their efforts — but both of them are very fine preachers and they’ve got big followings.”

He said there is no doubt the church throughout the Western world faces a serious situation demographically and politically, but he remains optimistic and sees signs of renewal, especially in new church realities such as Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal Way.

Opus Dei, founded in post-Spanish Civil War Spain by St. Josemaria Escriva, focuses on helping young people and adults to discover and live sanctity via friendship with God. The Neocatechumenal Way, founded also in Spain in 1968, focuses on building small communities following a path of formation toward an adult faith, with a strong emphasis on coming to know the Word of God and its associated themes in Scripture.

The path to irrelevance for the church is already obvious, he said.

“The irony of it is — and it’s demonstrated in the liberal Protestant world, it’s demonstrated in the Catholic world, in Belgium, Holland, Quebec and to some extent in Switzerland and Austria — the more you adapt to the world, the faster the Catholic Church goes out of business.”

However, if the church remains faithful to Christ, he said, there’s always the chance that new forces of renewal and leadership will arise.

Also see:

Cardinal Pell released from prison after court overturns conviction

Copyright © 2020 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Peter Rosengren

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Fire guts historic Catholic school in parish connected to St. John Neumann
  • Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81
  • Notre Dame Cathedral reopening date announced as reconstruction on its famous spire wraps up in eastern France

| Latest Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

| Latest World News |

Pope, World Council of Churches’ leaders talk about war, divisions

Pre-Vatican II Mass was formed by ‘clericalization,’ says papal preacher

Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope, World Council of Churches’ leaders talk about war, divisions
  • Pre-Vatican II Mass was formed by ‘clericalization,’ says papal preacher
  • Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome
  • Human composting, alkaline hydrolysis not acceptable for burial, say U.S. bishops
  • Pope advances sainthood causes of six candidates
  • Retired Milwaukee priest barred from hearing confessions over support of Delaware ‘repeal of seal’ law
  • Suspect pleads not guilty in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell
  • Avoid polarizing debate, promote healthy scientific discussion, pope says
  • CRS, USAID help Ethiopia ‘at a time of great need’ amid devastating drought

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED