Paperback: Innocent!
That was the final verdict, but not before Cardinal George Pell endured a grueling five years of accusations, trials, conviction, humiliation, character assassination, and finally more than a year of imprisonment after being convicted by an Australian appellate court for a crime he did not commit.
Immediately led off to jail in handcuffs and with shackles binding his ankles following that trial on 13 March 2019, the Australian prelate began a six-year prison sentence for “historical sex abuse”. After enduring more than 13 months in prison, eight of those in solitary confinement, the original sentence was overturned when Cardinal Pell was vindicated by an unanimous 7-0 decision rendered by the Australian High Court.
His victory over an extreme travesty of justice was not just personal, but one for the entire Catholic Church.
Bearing no ill will to his accuser, judges, prison workers, journalists, and those harboring and expressing hate for him, the cardinal used his time in prison as a kind of “extended retreat” and eloquently filled pages with, among other details, his daily activities, personal thoughts, love for his fellow man, and beautiful, moving prayers.
Prison Journal Volume 1 (2020) is a testament to the capacity of God's grace to inspire insight, magnanimity, and goodness amidst wickedness, evil, and injustice. It is a beautiful and remarkable work that bears witness to the Christian character that divine grace formed in its author, George Cardinal Pell. It demonstrates a man, freed by the High Court, who could not be broken: a man whose vibrant Christian faith sustained him under extraordinary pressures. During his doctoral studies at Oxford in the late 1960s, young Fr George Pell had ample opportunity to ponder the faithful witness of Thomas More and John Fisher under grave pressure. He could not have known then that he, too, would suffer calumny, public vilification, and unjust imprisonment. But, like More and Fisher, George Cardinal Pell took his stand on the truth, confident that the truth is liberating in the deepest meaning of human freedom. The journal you are about to read illustrates that liberation in a luminous way.
About the author: George Cardinal Pell, formerly Archbishop of Sydney (2001–2014) and of Melbourne (1996–2001), Australia, was appointed in 2014 by Pope Francis as Prefect of the Secretariate for the Economy at the Vatican. He also served on Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals. Cardinal Pell received a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Urbanianum University in Rome, and his DPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford. His previous books include Test Everything and Issues of Faith and Morals. His Prison Journal Volume 2 (2021) is out now.
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