Paperback: This is in part a story of a notable Prince of Church, a staunch defender of Vatican authority. It is also a heartbreaking tribute to the children abused within his circle, and both before and during his time of authority - knowledge of which he denies, as is his legal right. But above all, Cardinal (2017) introduces new evidence indicating that as engrossing as this account may be, George Pell's career has not yet taken its final direction. - Tom Keneally, Australian novelist, playwright and essayist
George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church. He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican's indispensable 'Treasurer'. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, 'Big George's' ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up.
George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem. But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted.
The nation's most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children.
A world-first report by an actual Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that 7 per cent of Australian priests working between 1950 and 2010 had sexual abuse complaints made against them to the Church. That is far higher than the international figure of 2 per cent as the quantum of paedophile priests offered by Pope Francis to Italy's La Repubblica newspaper in 2014. Of the complaints at that time, ground zero was the Archdiocese of Melbourne which Pell oversaw. Between 1950 and 2010, 8.1 per cent of 859 priests were accused of sexual abuse. While there were other dioceses where the percentage was higher, they were in places where the numbers of priests were far lower. Melbourne had more paedophile priests than any other place in the country. And most of them operated during Pell's time in Victoria as priest or bishop.
In 2009, the Vatican's representative in Geneva, Switzerland, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, was quoted as saying that the sexual abuse crisis in the United States and internationally was about homosexual priests preying on adolescent boys rather than paedophilia per se. It was 'more correct', Tomasi said, to speak of ephebophilia, an attraction to adolescent males than paedophilia.
According to LifeSiteNews, a Canadian pro-life news site which focuses on religious, particularly Catholic, issues, Tomasi's views were 'backed up by a report commissioned by the US bishops that found in the overwhelmingly majority of cases the clergy involved were homosexuals, with 81 percent of victims being adolescent males'. The implication of this report appeared to be that the problem was homosexuality, not clergy abuse.
Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants. She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal's knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time.
Conspiracy or cover-up?
Cardinal uncovers uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil.
Melbourne University Press will withdraw Louise Milligan’s book about George Pell from Victorian bookshops (Australia) following the cardinal’s charges for multiple historical sexual offences. Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell details allegations against Pell, but now he has been charged, the book may prejudice the case and be in contempt of court.
About the author: Louise Milligan is an investigative reporter for ABC TV's 7.30 and Four Corners. She has covered the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. Her exclusive stories on the allegations against George Pell won her two Quill Awards from the Melbourne Press Club, including the Gold Quill for best story of the year, the highest honour in Victorian journalism. Milligan is Irish-born and was raised a devout Catholic.
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