Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News Australia

Cardinal Pell’s High Court appeal date set for March

byMark Bowling
20 February 2020
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA

Guilty: Cardinal George Pell. Photo: CNS

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Appeal confirmed: The High Court of Australia has set to hear Cardinal George Pell’s leave to appeal his child sexual abuse conviction on March 11 and 12. Photo: CNS

THE High Court of Australia has set a date to hear Cardinal George Pell’s leave to appeal against his conviction for child sex abuse offences committed in the 1990s, when he was the Archbishop of Melbourne.

The case will be heard on March 11 and 12 in Canberra, and is the final legal avenue for Australia’s most senior Catholic, who is serving a six-year sentence for sexually assaulting two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Lawyers for the 78-year-old prelate are preparing for a hearing in which judges could reject Pell’s leave to appeal or might allow the appeal to proceed.

It means that a ruling could be announced at the end of the two-day hearing, or judgement could take several months.

Cardinal Pell’s case has attracted worldwide attention, and followed a Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse that was highly critical of the Catholic Church in its findings.

The Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is awaiting the High Court decision, with officials saying they will proceed with an investigation that could lead to a canonical trial.

The former Vatican treasurer was found guilty by a jury in December 2018 of five charges of abusing the choirboys, and was sentenced the following March.

He lost an appeal in August in Victoria’s Court of Appeal in which the judges’ decision was split 2-1.

The contested nature of that decision – two judges backed the jury’s verdict and the dissenting judge sided with Pell (pictured) – is at the forefront of his latest bid to overturn the convictions.

Pell’s defence team is expected to argue that two of the judges erred in their judgement because the crown case had relied on the evidence of just one complainant, a former choirboy now in his 30s.

Related Stories

Cardinal Pell writes about the faith that sustained him through prison

Cardinal George Pell acquitted by High Court, freed from Barwon Prison

Cardinal Pell denies child abuse allegations following charges

Two of the judges found the former choirboy to be “very compelling” and someone who “was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth”.

The third judge, Justice Mark Weinberg, however, found the victim’s account “contained discrepancies” and there was a “significant possibility” Pell did not commit the offences.

Pell’s lawyers are also expected to argue that the Supreme Court erred because it would have been impossible, beyond reasonable doubt, for the offending to have taken place – there was not enough time for Pell to have molested the boys in the priests’ sacristy during a five to six-minute period after Sunday Mass ended and the area became a “hive of activity”.

Normally, under the Church’s Code of Canon Law, a member of the clergy accused of abusing children faces a tribunal of up to five bishops casting judgment on the accused, but the pope also has the right to judge guilty clergy.

One hurdle if a canonical trial went ahead would be the access to primary evidence and testimony.

Cardinal Pell’s accuser would need to testify again before the tribunal, as well as witnesses in Pell’s defence.

And while Cardinal Pell remains behind bars, his appearance in front of a tribunal would be difficult.

Canon law states that a cleric who is found to have abused minors “is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state”.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Choosing to take responsibility for the faith

Next Post

Relics of saintly family offer lessons on holiness during Brisbane pilgrimage

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

Cardinal Pell
Australia

Cardinal Pell writes about the faith that sustained him through prison

15 July 2020
Australia

Cardinal George Pell acquitted by High Court, freed from Barwon Prison

7 April 2020
Cardinal Pell in the Vatican
Australia

Cardinal Pell denies child abuse allegations following charges

29 June 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Next Post
Carmelites with relics

Relics of saintly family offer lessons on holiness during Brisbane pilgrimage

Sr Maeve Heany

Verbum Dei missionary releases Lenten program in Australia

Creation forum

Brisbane bishop says caring for creation at heart of faith

Popular News

  • From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”
News

Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

by Mark Bowling
24 May 2022
0

BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has used the feast day of Our Lady, Help of Christians to call...

Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

24 May 2022
Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

24 May 2022
Life ‘is always sacred and inviolable’, Pope Francis says

Life ‘is always sacred and inviolable’, Pope Francis says

23 May 2022

From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

23 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping