Just one of a number of inane phrases Pell uttered this week, as he reluctantly fronted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, after filibustering for months on the subject.
At first he would attend the Commission hearings in Sydney, then he wouldn’t. Then he would, but later. Then, he would, but only from the confines of a plush hotel in central Rome. Only a hop, skip and a jump from his usual digs at the Vatican.
Poor Pell’s “hard slog” was betrayed by a response to a question (later retracted by Pell) where he said that knowledge of Gerald Ridsdale’s serial sexual abuse of children was nothing more than a “sad story” which “wasn’t much interest to him”.
Well, if the rape and molestation of 54 children – one just four years old – doesn’t interest you or your Christianity, it ain’t clear to me what you would find “interesting”.
George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, a Cardinal of Christ, is metaphorically the pivot around which all loyal Catholics should turn. Yet the pivot itself has no idea where it is going.
Four years ago, he warned priests not to go to police with information about sexual abuse if those allegations were made in the confines of a confession booth. He admitted keeping canon law sacrosanct was more important than the law the rest of us mere mortals have to live by.
In 2014, he compared the rape of children to a truck driver picking up “some lady” and molesting her – clumsy, offensive and sexist – a trifecta of stupidity. Well done, Mr Pell!
This week he dismissed the victims of rape and abuse, again. Sure he met with them – remember, it was “hard”! But he again confirmed that the rights of priests are far higher than the rights of anyone else.
Forget the brave little boys and girls who told of their depraved sexual abuse at the hands of their spiritual leaders, Pell was “strongly inclined” to believe his liturgical mates.
George Pell said this week that he “wasn’t here to defend the indefensible”. Yet his lack of apology, his vomit-inducing reference to Ridsdale as a “friend” and his avoidance of the entire Commission process seems to argue the exact opposite.
Pell has been defending the indefensible for years.
So as the so-called “survivors” arrive back home in Australia – weary with jet lag and emotional with the grief of their stolen childhoods fresh in their minds – Pell will already be home, dressed in his red hat and heavy gold ecclesiastical ring, kneeling again to a God that will always absolve his sins.
