Denver Catholic

30 MAY 25-JUNE 7, 2019 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives The Pell case: Developments down under It's time for Catholics (and all religious people) to wake up: The real danger posed by the California confession bill I n three weeks, a panel of senior judges will hear Cardinal George Pell's appeal of the unjust verdict rendered against him at his retrial in March, when he was convicted of "histori- cal sexual abuse." That con- viction did not come close to meeting the criterion of guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is funda- mental to criminal law in any right- ly-ordered society. The prosecution o¯ ered no corroborating evidence sustaining the complainant's charge. The defense demolished the prose- cution's case, as witness after witness testifi ed that the alleged abuse simply could not have happened under the circumstances charged — in a busy cathedral after Mass, in a secured space. Yet the jury, which may have ignored instructions from the trial judge as to how evidence should be construed, returned a unanimous verdict of guilty. At the cardinal's sentencing, the trial judge never once said that he agreed with the jury's verdict; he did say, multiple times, that he was simply doing what the law required him to do. Cardinal Pell's appeal will be just as devastating to the prosecution's case as was his defense at both his fi rst trial (which ended with a hung jury, believed to have favored acquittal) and the retrial. What friends of the cardinal, friends of Australia, and friends of justice must hope is that the appellate judges will get right what the retrial jury manifestly got wrong. That will not be easy, for the appel- late judges will have been subjected to the same public and media hysteria over Cardinal Pell that was indis- putably a factor in his conviction on charges demonstrated to be, literally, incredible. Those appellate judges will also know, however, that the rep- utation of the Australian criminal jus- tice system is at stake in this appeal. And it may be hoped that those judges will display the courage and grit in the face of incoming fi re that the rest of the Anglosphere has associated with "Australia" since the Gallipoli cam- paign in World War I. In jail for two months now, the cardinal has displayed a remarkable equanimity and good cheer that can only come from a clear conscience. The Melbourne Assessment Prison allows its distinguished prisoner few visitors, beyond his legal team; but those who have gone to the prison intending to cheer up a friend have, in correspondence with me, testifi ed to having found themselves cheered and consoled by Cardinal Pell — a man whose spiritual life was deeply infl uenced by the examples of Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More during Henry VIII's persecution of the Church in 16th-century England. The impact of over a half-century of refl ection on those epic fi gures is now being displayed to Cardinal Pell's visitors and jailers, during what he describes as his extended "retreat." Around the world, and in Austra- lia itself, calmer spirits than those baying for George Pell's blood (and behaving precisely like the deranged French bigots who cheered when the innocent Captain Alfred Dreyfus was condemned to a living death on Dev- il's Island) have surfaced new oddities — to put it gently — surrounding the Pell Case. How is it, for example, that the complainant's description of the sexual assault he alleges Cardinal Pell committed bears a striking resem- blance — to put it gently, again — to an incident of clerical sexual abuse described in Rolling Stone in 2011? How is it that edited transcripts of a post-conviction phone conversation between the cardinal and his cathe- dral master of ceremonies (who had testifi ed to the sheer physical impos- sibility of the charges against Pell being true) got into the hands (and thence into the newspaper writing) of a reporter with a history of anti-Pell bias and polemic? What is the web of relationships among the virulently anti-Pell sectors of the Australian media, the police in the state of Vic- toria, and senior Australian political fi gures with longstanding grievances against the politically incorrect George Pell? What is the relation- ship between the local Get Pell gang and those with much to lose from his e¯ orts to clean up the Vatican's fi nances? And what is the state of serious investigative journalism in Australia, when these matters are only investi- gated by small-circulation journals and independent researchers? An "unsafe" verdict in Australia is one a jury could not rationally have reached. Friends of truth must hope that the appellate judges, tuning out the mob, will begin to restore safety and rationality to public life Down Under in June. S B 360, a piece of proposed legis- lation currently making its way through the California state senate, should alarm not only every Catholic in the country, but indeed the adepts of any reli- gion. In California, as in almost every other state, clergy members (along with a variety of other professionals, including physicians, social workers, teachers, and therapists) are mandated report- ers — which is to say, they are legally required to report any case of sus- pected child abuse or neglect to law enforcement. However, California clergy who come by this knowledge in the context of "penitential com- munication" are currently exempted from the requirement. SB 360 would remove the exemption. Sen. Jerry Hill, the bill's sponsor, characterized the scope and purpose of his legis- lation as follows: "The law should apply equally to all professionals who have been designated as mandated reporters of these crimes — with no exceptions, period. The exemption for clergy only protects the abuser and places children at further risk." I would like to make clear what the passage of this law would mean for Catholic priests in California. Immediately, it would place them on the horns of a terrible dilemma. Since the canon law of the Church stipulates that the conscious viola- tion of the seal of confession results in automatic excommunication, every priest, under this new law, would be threatened with prosecution and pos- sible imprisonment on the one hand or formal exclusion from the body of Christ on the other. And does anyone doubt that, if this law is enacted, attempts will be made to entrap priests, e¯ ectively placing them in this impossible position? What I hope is clear — not only to Catholics, but to any American committed to the First Amendment — is that we are dealing here with an egregious violation of the principle of religious liberty. In its stipulation that Congress shall make no law respect- ing the establishment of religion, the fi rst amendment holds o¯ , if you will, the aggression of any religion toward the civil state. But in its further stip- ulation that Congress shall never legislate in such a way as to obviate the free exercise of religion, it blocks the state's aggression toward religion. The framers of the Bill of Rights were legit- imately alarmed at the prospect of the government meddling in the a¯ airs of a religious community, monitoring its beliefs and policing its behavior. But The Catholic Di¤ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL BISHOP ROBERT BARRON Guest Column Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles. He is the creator of the award winning documentary series "Catholicism."

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