Australian court to announce
outcome of Cardinal Pell’s appeal
 |
| Cardinal George Pell (ANSA) |
On Wednesday in Australia, the Supreme Court of Victoria
will announce its decision regarding Cardinal George Pell’s appeal of
December’s verdict at the conclusion of his trial on charges of sexual abuse.
Cardinal George Pell will find out on Wednesday what the
judges who heard his appeal at the beginning of June have decided. This
decision comes after the first trial regarding historical charges of sexual
abuse resulted in a hung jury that led to a retrial in which the jury
unanimously endorsed a guilty verdict. A second case was thrown out of court due
to the lack of admissible evidence.
Pre-trial Facts
Cardinal Pell became an Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese
of Melbourne in 1987 and was installed as its Metropolitan Archbishop in 1996.
Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Council
of Cardinals in April 2013 and as Prefect for the newly created Secretariat
for the Economy in February 2014.
After being under investigation for two years in Australia,
Cardinal Pell was formally charged at the end of June 2017 with multiple counts
of “historical sexual assault offenses” in two separate cases.
In a statement issued at the time, Cardinal Pell declared he
was “innocent of these charges”, calling them “false”, adding that “the whole
idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me”. He then announced that he would return
to Australia to “clear his name”.
The Holy See issued a statement the
same day announcing that Pope Francis had granted the Cardinal a “leave of
absence” so he could return to Australia and “defend himself”. According
to a statement released
in February 2019 by the Holy See Press Office, the local Ordinary imposed
“precautionary measures” on Cardinal Pell as soon as he returned to Australia.
The Holy Father confirmed those measures which included the prohibition “from
exercising public ministry and from having any voluntary contact whatsoever
with minors”.
Trial Facts
On 1 May 2018, he entered a “not guilty” plea in Melbourne’s
Magistrates’ Court, and was ordered to stand trial. The charges brought against
Cardinal Pell resulted in two trials dubbed the “cathedral trial” and “the swimmers
trial”.
In the first case, Cardinal Pell was accused of indecent
acts and sexual assault of two choir boys in the sacristy of Melbourne’s
Cathedral after noon Mass sometime at the end of 1996 and again at the
beginning of 1997.
The charges in the second case were indecent assault of two
boys who accused Cardinal Pell of touching them while in a swimming pool in the
late 1970s.
Deliberations by the jury regarding the “cathedral trial”
which had begun in August 2018 resulted in a hung jury because jurors were
unable to reach either a unanimous or a majority verdict. A retrial began in
November with a new jury which came to the conclusion in December that Cardinal
Pell was guilty based on evidence presented in court.
Due to a suppression order meant to protect the Cardinal’s
right to a fair trial regarding the “swimmers trial”, which had not yet been
tried in court, the verdict was not announced until February 2019. At the same
time, it was made public that the second trial that had been set for April would
not go forward due to the lack of admissible evidence.
Post-Trial Facts
In a 12 December 2018 briefing,
Holy See Press Office director, Greg Burke, explained that at the end of
October Pope Francis had brought closure to Cardinal Pell’s participation in
the Council of Cardinals due to “advanced age”.
Subsequently, at the end of February, 2019, Holy See Press
Office “ad interim” director, Alessandro Gisotti, confirmed that Cardinal
Pell’s five-year appointment that had begun in February 2014 as Prefect of the
Secretariat for the Economy had ended, thus bringing his service in the Vatican
to an end.
Cardinal Pell’s sentencing took place in March 2019.
Immediately after receiving a six-year prison sentence – of which he must serve
at least three years and eight months – Cardinal Pell appealed the verdict. He
was then taken to prison where he began to carry out the sentence. The
Cardinal’s appeal took place over two days at the beginning of June.
On Wednesday, the world will know whether the Supreme Court
of Victoria will uphold or overturn the previous verdict. It is difficult to
know the outcome. Depending on which arguments presented by the Cardinal’s or
the prosecution’s defense are accepted by the judges, there are at least three
possibilities. The Court may overturn the jury’s verdict based on the fact that
the verdict they reached is not supported by the evidence presented; the Court
may declare a mistrial and order a retrial; or the Court may uphold the jury’s
verdict. Their decision may not be the last, however, as both Cardinal Pell and
the prosecution can still appeal to Australia’s High Court.
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