Cardinal
George Pell has become the victim of a modern-day witch hunt. As a
social conservative, Pell has a number of opponents within the Catholic
Church. But his main attackers are presenters and journalists employed
by the ABC, Fairfax Media, The Guardian Australia and Sky News. Such
outlets rarely, if ever, allow an alternative voice to be heard.
Yet,
on all the available evidence, Pell was among the first Catholic
bishops in the world to address the issue of child sexual abuse by
clergy. He was appointed archbishop of Melbourne in July 1996 and
announced the creation of the Melbourne Response (to deal with child
sexual abuse) the following October. The remaining Catholic archbishops
and bishops in Australia set up the Towards Healing process, which began
in March 1997.