The Australian Catholic Church held a prayer vigil on Wednesday (February 1) as the coffin of controversial Vatican figure Cardinal George Pell was laid out for public display despite protests from victims of sexual violence.
Once considered the Vatican's third most influential man, Bishop Pell, who died on January 11 at the age of 81, had been accused of sexual assault and criticized for his intransigent positions on abortion and marriage between people. of the same sex.
He was convicted in 2019 of sexually assaulting two altar boys in the 1990s when he was Archbishop of Melbourne.
He had served nearly a year of imprisonment out of the six scheduled before his criminal convictions were overturned on appeal in 2020.
Outside St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where her remains lie ahead of her funeral on Thursday, victims of sexual violence tied ribbons to the railings in solidarity with other victims.
These ribbons have been removed several times.
Police have taken legal action to ban a protest against Cardinal Pell to be held outside the cathedral on Thursday.
Victims of sexual violence hung ribbons in front of St. Mary's Cathedral.
DAVID GRAY / AFP
For former Australian Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the cardinal's name has been tainted by a "
monstrous allegation
".
His incarceration “
was a modern form of crucifixion
,” he said after his death, calling him “
holy for our time
.”
Chrissie Foster, an Australian advocate for child victims of sexual abuse who has campaigned for change in the Church for 20 years, said Bishop Pell was indifferent and “
aggressive
” when she reported the attack to him . of two of his daughters by a Catholic priest in
suburban
Melbourne in the 1990s.
abandon the children
,” she told AFP.
And to add: "
The system he has established has just ensured that the victims continue to suffer
".
Cardinal Pell later conceded that he had not done enough to protect victims of Church sexual abuse.
