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Quarterly Essay #51
The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell
David Marr’s explosive bestseller, now expanded and fully updated.
Cardinal George Pell is behind bars. In August 2019, his appeal failed. Australia’s most senior Catholic, the man once in charge of the Vatican’s finances, remains in prison for sexually assaulting children.
In The Prince, David Marr investigates Pell’s career and his ultimate fall. Marr reveals a cleric at ease with power and aggressive in asserting the prerogatives of the Vatican. He charts Pell’s response – as a man, a priest, an archbishop and a prince of the church – to the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic world: the sexual abuse of children.
This is the story of a cleric torn by the contest between his church and its victims, and slow to realise that the Catholic Church cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny. Behind it all was Pell’s own terrible secret, which was uncovered and judged in a trial that convulsed the nation.
The Prince is a portrait of hypocrisy and ambition, set against a backdrop of terrible suffering and an ancient institution in turmoil.
Cardinal George Pell is behind bars. In August 2019, his appeal failed. Australia’s most senior Catholic, the man once in charge of the Vatican’s finances, remains in prison for sexually assaulting children.
In The Prince, David Marr investigates Pell’s career and his ultimate fall. Marr reveals a cleric at ease with power and aggressive in asserting the prerogatives of the Vatican. He charts Pell’s response – as a man, a priest, an archbishop and a prince of the church – to the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic world: the sexual abuse of children.
This is the story of a cleric torn by the contest between his church and its victims, and slow to realise that the Catholic Church cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny. Behind it all was Pell’s own terrible secret, which was uncovered and judged in a trial that convulsed the nation.
The Prince is a portrait of hypocrisy and ambition, set against a backdrop of terrible suffering and an ancient institution in turmoil.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2013
45 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
David Marr
39 books104 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Eminent Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: A Life, Panic and The High Price of Heaven, and co- author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian Australia and the Monthly. He has been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He is also the author of two previous bestselling biographical Quarterly Essays: Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd and Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott. His areas of expertise include Australian politics, law, censorship, the media and the arts. David Marr began his career in 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism. He also appears as a semi-regular panellist on the ABC television programs Q&A and Insiders.
Eminent Australian journalist, author, and progressive political and social commentator. David Marr is the multi-award-winning author of Patrick White: A Life, Panic and The High Price of Heaven, and co- author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian Australia and the Monthly. He has been editor of the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch. He is also the author of two previous bestselling biographical Quarterly Essays: Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd and Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott. His areas of expertise include Australian politics, law, censorship, the media and the arts. David Marr began his career in 1973 and is the recipient of four Walkley awards for journalism. He also appears as a semi-regular panellist on the ABC television programs Q&A and Insiders.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
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February 12, 2016Fuck Pell
December 14, 2019
David Marr has for many years reported on the career/antics of Pell. His book is a summary of all of his writings tracing Pell's life as a Catholic priest, bishop, archbishop and cardinal. It's not an easy read and one in which people will either agree with, argue against or cry about.
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August 21, 2017I think Marr quoting Pastoral Response Coordinator Helen Last: "This work was like crawling through the sewers without a gas mask. It was just shit, just horrific abuse." sums up this (vital but..) investigation into Pell as the figurehead for the unmitigated and unrepentant cover ups of abuse in the Catholic Church in Australia. I know that the Church has had unchecked power almost everywhere it has existed, but Australia remains a uniquely horrifying case as we are the only common law country where the Catholic Church cannot be sued. I can't believe this essay was released 4 years ago (after Pell being in a significant position of power for almost 20 years) and we have only seen a Royal Commission in the last year. Vital reading for anyone who dares to question the legitimacy of the survivors brave testimony or who don't know how far back the history of systematic Church abuse and cover ups goes.
October 9, 2019
Must read
This isn’t an easy book to read but I think it is something we do need to read about and get angry about. The systematic cover up of the abuses by the clergy against children from all levels. Besides the church covering it up and moving Paedophile priests from one church to another; the number of politicians and governments who refused to have an enquire. The fact that the most innocent among us were ignored, they were violated and no one defended them, took care of them. The trust of the children, their parents and our communities were violated.
Such an important read.
This isn’t an easy book to read but I think it is something we do need to read about and get angry about. The systematic cover up of the abuses by the clergy against children from all levels. Besides the church covering it up and moving Paedophile priests from one church to another; the number of politicians and governments who refused to have an enquire. The fact that the most innocent among us were ignored, they were violated and no one defended them, took care of them. The trust of the children, their parents and our communities were violated.
Such an important read.
November 24, 2019
I can’t say I enjoyed this. But it’s a powerful piece of writing and simply infuriating.
September 25, 2013
My mother is an active member of the Catholic Church in Australia and given her soft catholicism and advocacy for issues of social justice I often fail to understand how she can continue to be part of a crew that is, at least to laypeople, represented by a man as seemingly heinous and immovable as one George Pell.
In profiling the man, David Marr can't help but profile the organisation, explaining in due course how such an abomination as the regular, serial and continual abuse, sexual and otherwise, of young children could occur, and how the systematisation of it's coversion has, and is, aided by the church's top-down hierachichal nature.
The Catholic Church is an ancient body which by it's very design is ill-equipped to chart the seas of progress and late-modernity. It certainly doesn't help that the bullish and the arch-conservatives have had the run of the joint for the last while.
In advance of reading this Quarterly Essay I did not expect to be outraged as much as I was. In the last few years I have read a lot about Cardinal Pell and the most abhorent cases of child sexual abuse to which Marr claims him to have been linked. Still, I found myself quaking with rage at times throughout this piece. Marr, however is in no way sensationalist or emotionally irrational. As with his profile of now PM Tony Abbott in QE47: Political Animal, Marr is happy to admit positive attributes, to compliment when fit. This makes his writing all the more powerful. He is no polemist. His arguments are not as easily dismissed by the conservative right as are those of the more poetic yet also more factually loose like...hmmm...Bob Ellis.
The most intriguing insight into Pell comes in the essays conclusion when Marr writes:
"I have no reason to believe he [Pell] is other than one of those rare priests who is totally celibate. But everything about him suggests he has paid a terrible price for this. He has had to gut himself to stay that way. All the rules he insists the world must follow are the rules he needs for his peculiar quest. As I read the man, listen to him and watch him in action, I wonder how much of the strange ordinariness of George Pell began fifty years ago when...[he]...decided as an act of heroic piety, to kill sex in himself. The gamble such men take is that they may live their whole lives without learning the workings of an adult heart. [Pell]...is a company man of uncertain empathy."
In all, his writing is beautifully measured and this essay provides a perfectly weighted charge against all that is wrong with Pell and his fellow enablers. Now, let us only hope Marr is planning on completing the wicked triumvirate in 2014 with a profile of Andrew Bolt.
In profiling the man, David Marr can't help but profile the organisation, explaining in due course how such an abomination as the regular, serial and continual abuse, sexual and otherwise, of young children could occur, and how the systematisation of it's coversion has, and is, aided by the church's top-down hierachichal nature.
The Catholic Church is an ancient body which by it's very design is ill-equipped to chart the seas of progress and late-modernity. It certainly doesn't help that the bullish and the arch-conservatives have had the run of the joint for the last while.
In advance of reading this Quarterly Essay I did not expect to be outraged as much as I was. In the last few years I have read a lot about Cardinal Pell and the most abhorent cases of child sexual abuse to which Marr claims him to have been linked. Still, I found myself quaking with rage at times throughout this piece. Marr, however is in no way sensationalist or emotionally irrational. As with his profile of now PM Tony Abbott in QE47: Political Animal, Marr is happy to admit positive attributes, to compliment when fit. This makes his writing all the more powerful. He is no polemist. His arguments are not as easily dismissed by the conservative right as are those of the more poetic yet also more factually loose like...hmmm...Bob Ellis.
The most intriguing insight into Pell comes in the essays conclusion when Marr writes:
"I have no reason to believe he [Pell] is other than one of those rare priests who is totally celibate. But everything about him suggests he has paid a terrible price for this. He has had to gut himself to stay that way. All the rules he insists the world must follow are the rules he needs for his peculiar quest. As I read the man, listen to him and watch him in action, I wonder how much of the strange ordinariness of George Pell began fifty years ago when...[he]...decided as an act of heroic piety, to kill sex in himself. The gamble such men take is that they may live their whole lives without learning the workings of an adult heart. [Pell]...is a company man of uncertain empathy."
In all, his writing is beautifully measured and this essay provides a perfectly weighted charge against all that is wrong with Pell and his fellow enablers. Now, let us only hope Marr is planning on completing the wicked triumvirate in 2014 with a profile of Andrew Bolt.
April 5, 2024
Interesting
October 28, 2019
I read the original Quarterly Essay and have now read the 'The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell', rewritten and reissued following the conviction and sentencing of Pell as a paedophile. David Marr is an extraordinary journalist, and I find his work detailed, fastidious and extremely convincing. Pell's personality, ambition and failings are analysed with an unflinching keenness. It is clear that Marr is deeply fascinated by the conundrum presented by Pell. Is Pell a sociopath? Has Pell absolutely none of the compassion of Christ? Is ambition his only motivation?
What is clear from Marr’s excellent research and analysis is that Pell, despite his protestations to the contrary, has protected paedophile priests for decades, ignoring the multiple complaints of victims, parents, teachers and administrators. In doing this, and in moving known serial offenders from parish to parish, he facilitated priests to reoffend, and allowed untold numbers of children to become their prey. Pell is thus responsible for causing lifetimes of mental and physical torment, illness, shame and countless suicides. Marr is careful to detail Pell’s ‘fiscal responsibility’ in limiting payouts to victims, contrasting with his lavish spending on church buildings, statues, Pell’s own Roman apartment and on vestments, food and wine.
In addition, and for some most shocking, Pell himself has now been convicted of the sexual abuse of children. It is a sordid story, a story of entitlement, ambition and complete disregard for the welfare of others. A compelling read.
What is clear from Marr’s excellent research and analysis is that Pell, despite his protestations to the contrary, has protected paedophile priests for decades, ignoring the multiple complaints of victims, parents, teachers and administrators. In doing this, and in moving known serial offenders from parish to parish, he facilitated priests to reoffend, and allowed untold numbers of children to become their prey. Pell is thus responsible for causing lifetimes of mental and physical torment, illness, shame and countless suicides. Marr is careful to detail Pell’s ‘fiscal responsibility’ in limiting payouts to victims, contrasting with his lavish spending on church buildings, statues, Pell’s own Roman apartment and on vestments, food and wine.
In addition, and for some most shocking, Pell himself has now been convicted of the sexual abuse of children. It is a sordid story, a story of entitlement, ambition and complete disregard for the welfare of others. A compelling read.
October 10, 2013
Journalist David Marr investigates Cardinal George Pell and the role he has played in the Australian Catholic Church's response to child sexual abuse in this compelling Quarterly Essay. Starting with Pell's early life as publican's son in regional Victoria, Marr documents Pell's climb through Catholic hierarchy.
At all points in Pell's career the scandal of sexual abuse lingered, but Pell was seemingly blind to it. Incredulously, Pell presents himself as largely ignorant of the predators he worked and lived alongside. Once alerted to abuses, he protected perpetrators and silenced victims. Pell has a lot to answer for by his acts and omissions. Ultimately, Marr shows Pell as an ambitious man of blind faith who put the Catholic Church ahead of victims.
At all points in Pell's career the scandal of sexual abuse lingered, but Pell was seemingly blind to it. Incredulously, Pell presents himself as largely ignorant of the predators he worked and lived alongside. Once alerted to abuses, he protected perpetrators and silenced victims. Pell has a lot to answer for by his acts and omissions. Ultimately, Marr shows Pell as an ambitious man of blind faith who put the Catholic Church ahead of victims.
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June 15, 2025i hope every priest in the world knows immeasurable pain. i hope to see the fall of the catholic cult in my lifetime xx
January 17, 2026
“It was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.”
Those are the words Cardinal George Pell used when told a child had been raped. Sit with that. Not disputed. Not misquoted. Not torn from context. A child was raped, and the most powerful Catholic in Australia reacted with the moral engagement of someone hearing the pub had run out of wedges.
From there, everything in “The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell” follows with an awful, inexorable logic.
I’ve hated George Pell for as long as I’ve been aware of him. A loathsome creature. This book lands squarely in the sweet spot of my biases, then goes further and earns every one of them. Add the morally bankrupt Catholic Church, its vile patrons like Bob Santamaria, a hose of Murdoch cronies running interference, and the satisfaction is grim and complete. Not entertainment. Exposure. The relief that comes when rot finally hits air.
Marr does not rant. He does not froth. He vivisects. With the calm precision of someone gutting a fish, he opens Pell and the institution that shielded him, and the guts just keep coming. Marr writes like a man sharpening a blade, steady, methodical, absolutely ready to cut through bullshit. The facts do the work. They are so rancid they stink on their own.
What disgusts most is the industrial-strength cowardice. Decades of child abuse hidden like dirty laundry by men who claimed moral authority while behaving like a cartel. Protect the Church. Protect the predators. Protect the money. Let the kids fend for themselves. Survivors were handed pennies while Pell spent like a Renaissance prince on robes, buildings, wine, and his Roman digs. The obscenity of that contrast never dulls.
Marr’s psychological excavation is genuinely bracing. He digs into Pell’s interior life like someone forcing open a locked cellar door and finding something damp and twitching inside. This is the portrait of a man who appears to have cauterised his own emotional life in the name of celibacy, a self-lobotomised rule-enforcer who mistakes repression for virtue. Marr even gives Pell credit where it is due, which only sharpens the blade. This is not hysteria. It is earned.
The Australian context matters, and Marr names it without flinching. Our legal quirks helped turn the Church into a fortress for predators, a sanctuary for the sanctimonious. Governments, police, and politicians repeatedly folded like wet cardboard, effectively joining the cover-up choir. This was not just ecclesiastical failure. It was a systemic collapse of nerve.
The historical sweep is one of the book’s quieter strengths. Pell’s rise is not treated as an aberration but as the logical outcome of a long lineage of clerical power and institutional rot. The Church did not lose its way. It followed its incentives with chilling consistency.
The material is so bleak it feels like reading with your head in a bucket of bleach, but that is the subject, not the craft. Some readers will need to pause to scream into the void. Again, that is the Church’s legacy, not Marr’s prose. You could argue for more theory, a wider net, but Marr’s focus is a scalpel, not a shotgun, and he uses it with lethal care.
This essay should be mandatory reading for anyone still muttering “bad apples” while standing in an orchard crawling with rot and worms. Anyone still equivocating about Pell or the Church’s record should read this and sit with the rage it provokes. Properly. Without flinching.
I finished this shaken, exhausted, and furious in a low, steady way. Not the release of a rant, but the kind of anger that settles in the bones and refuses to move. This is essential journalism. A quiet detonation that leaves your moral compass rattling.
Four-and-a-half stars. The fifth is withheld only because the harm is bottomless, and no book, however forensic, could ever exhaust it. That absence is not a failure of Marr’s work. It is the final indictment of the institution he dissects.
Those are the words Cardinal George Pell used when told a child had been raped. Sit with that. Not disputed. Not misquoted. Not torn from context. A child was raped, and the most powerful Catholic in Australia reacted with the moral engagement of someone hearing the pub had run out of wedges.
From there, everything in “The Prince: Faith, Abuse and George Pell” follows with an awful, inexorable logic.
I’ve hated George Pell for as long as I’ve been aware of him. A loathsome creature. This book lands squarely in the sweet spot of my biases, then goes further and earns every one of them. Add the morally bankrupt Catholic Church, its vile patrons like Bob Santamaria, a hose of Murdoch cronies running interference, and the satisfaction is grim and complete. Not entertainment. Exposure. The relief that comes when rot finally hits air.
Marr does not rant. He does not froth. He vivisects. With the calm precision of someone gutting a fish, he opens Pell and the institution that shielded him, and the guts just keep coming. Marr writes like a man sharpening a blade, steady, methodical, absolutely ready to cut through bullshit. The facts do the work. They are so rancid they stink on their own.
What disgusts most is the industrial-strength cowardice. Decades of child abuse hidden like dirty laundry by men who claimed moral authority while behaving like a cartel. Protect the Church. Protect the predators. Protect the money. Let the kids fend for themselves. Survivors were handed pennies while Pell spent like a Renaissance prince on robes, buildings, wine, and his Roman digs. The obscenity of that contrast never dulls.
Marr’s psychological excavation is genuinely bracing. He digs into Pell’s interior life like someone forcing open a locked cellar door and finding something damp and twitching inside. This is the portrait of a man who appears to have cauterised his own emotional life in the name of celibacy, a self-lobotomised rule-enforcer who mistakes repression for virtue. Marr even gives Pell credit where it is due, which only sharpens the blade. This is not hysteria. It is earned.
The Australian context matters, and Marr names it without flinching. Our legal quirks helped turn the Church into a fortress for predators, a sanctuary for the sanctimonious. Governments, police, and politicians repeatedly folded like wet cardboard, effectively joining the cover-up choir. This was not just ecclesiastical failure. It was a systemic collapse of nerve.
The historical sweep is one of the book’s quieter strengths. Pell’s rise is not treated as an aberration but as the logical outcome of a long lineage of clerical power and institutional rot. The Church did not lose its way. It followed its incentives with chilling consistency.
The material is so bleak it feels like reading with your head in a bucket of bleach, but that is the subject, not the craft. Some readers will need to pause to scream into the void. Again, that is the Church’s legacy, not Marr’s prose. You could argue for more theory, a wider net, but Marr’s focus is a scalpel, not a shotgun, and he uses it with lethal care.
This essay should be mandatory reading for anyone still muttering “bad apples” while standing in an orchard crawling with rot and worms. Anyone still equivocating about Pell or the Church’s record should read this and sit with the rage it provokes. Properly. Without flinching.
I finished this shaken, exhausted, and furious in a low, steady way. Not the release of a rant, but the kind of anger that settles in the bones and refuses to move. This is essential journalism. A quiet detonation that leaves your moral compass rattling.
Four-and-a-half stars. The fifth is withheld only because the harm is bottomless, and no book, however forensic, could ever exhaust it. That absence is not a failure of Marr’s work. It is the final indictment of the institution he dissects.
January 17, 2020
David Marr writes so beautifully, even of such a ghastly subject. He elucidates the history surrounding Pell & the child sex abuse scandals forensically. Brilliant read
March 14, 2020
Confronting but essential reading. Spoiler alert - he is a despicable man.
January 21, 2023
Good riddance and burn in hell 3🔥
December 28, 2020
“It was a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me.” These words spoken by Cardinal George Pell when giving his second day of evidence from Rome via video-link to the Royal Commission inquiry back in Australia in 2016 continued to echo in my mind as I read Marr’s 2013 essay. I cannot fathom the lack of empathy shown by Australia's most senior Catholic who continued to deny that he had any knowledge of the actions of a paedophile priest when he was a priest in the Diocese of Ballarat in the 1970s. He said of Ridsdale's offending, once he did become aware of it, was a 'sad story' but was 'not of much interest' to him. And he answered 'no' when asked whether every priest has responsibility for the safety of children taken into the Church's care.
Marr’s essay investigates how Pell rose through the ranks to become such a powerful figure in the Catholic Church. It is measured, Marr does not go in for sensationalism, he doesn’t need to; he lays out for the reader the facts of Pell’s handling of the scandal of child sex abuse by priests and it is an incredibly moving and distressing story.
June 20, 2021
Paying no price for being wrong.
This is a well crafted commentary about Cardinal Pell, how he came to power in the Australian Catholic church and despite the disgrace and shame of cleric abuse has not only survived, but thrived.
This book gives keen insights into the strategies and techniques the Catholic institution and Cardinal Pell have used to defend itself from financial ruin and scandal. The blind ambition, faith and loyalty to the Catholic institution at the cost of the lives of abuse survivors is shocking. One has to wonder if the dropping numbers of the Catholic faithful are the result of such abuse of power.
As Thomas Sowell said, "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."
This is a well crafted commentary about Cardinal Pell, how he came to power in the Australian Catholic church and despite the disgrace and shame of cleric abuse has not only survived, but thrived.
This book gives keen insights into the strategies and techniques the Catholic institution and Cardinal Pell have used to defend itself from financial ruin and scandal. The blind ambition, faith and loyalty to the Catholic institution at the cost of the lives of abuse survivors is shocking. One has to wonder if the dropping numbers of the Catholic faithful are the result of such abuse of power.
As Thomas Sowell said, "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."
May 13, 2020
Regardless of my thoughts on Pell's guilt or innocence for the charges which were most recently quashed, I find this a most compelling portrayal of a life of blind faith, ambition and a disregard for the suffering of others. It is an absolute condemnation of the self-governance of the church and the beleif that it can be above the law - something which i cannot abhor and which will forever drive me further from considering such a faith for my own.
November 17, 2023
A very powerful book that made me feel both extremely sad and extremely angry. It was very difficult to read and there were times I wanted to throw it at the wall but I am glad I preserved. The book provides an informative overview of George Pell’s life and in doing so, looks at the issues facing the Catholic Church and how the Church in Australia handled child sex abuse claims. Although published 4 years ago, it is still an extremely important book and definitely worth reading.
February 6, 2019
A forensic analysis of the life and career of a controversial cleric.
David Marr's book on the life and times of George Pell is mandatory background reading to understand current enquiries and trials surrounding alleged child sexual abuse by clergy. Well researched and with in depth insights into the principal characters.
David Marr's book on the life and times of George Pell is mandatory background reading to understand current enquiries and trials surrounding alleged child sexual abuse by clergy. Well researched and with in depth insights into the principal characters.
October 19, 2023
This shows the extent of the abuse hidden and supported by the Catholic Church in Victoria to the poor misfortunate children in their care. It demonstrates the rise of Pell from a priest to a cardinal and his place in covering up and hiding the extent of this within his diocese. A very well written book from David Marr about a heartbreaking subject.
May 12, 2022
didn’t realise this edition of quarterly essay was published before the high court decision, but still a very informative and insightful exploration of the background surrounding pell’s case.
EDIT: i read the 3rd edition published in 2019
EDIT: i read the 3rd edition published in 2019
April 26, 2018
A sobering read. If you wish to feel angered and ponder the morals of religious institutions then this fits the bill.
December 27, 2018
Lovely to have something about George Pell to read, and very well written. This is $1.91 on Kindle at the mo.
June 11, 2019
A really interesting look into the catholic church and Cardinal Pell. The analysis of evidence of corruption was truly insightful
August 6, 2019
Pretty good. I just wanted to learn a bit more and to be a bit more entertained by the story. Perhaps it just wasn’t flow-y enough. Still, it’s interesting enough to read the whole essay.
December 23, 2019
Bloody love David Marr, he has a mind like a steel trap and he does not disappoint in this essay.
August 30, 2022
It speaks truth to power in the Catholic Church, the Institution and now forward to 2022 can priests be the employer in Catholic primary schools in charge of Children in Australia?
March 25, 2025
Devastating. listened as I want to be informed. I am angry that the Catholic Church still has power and the ability to absolve themselves of their hideous sins.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2013
“Has a more devastating portrait of a ''respectable'', living, non-politician, Australian public figure ever been published?” I find most of David Marr’s work compelling and this was no exception. It’s very difficult for me to judge how fair or rounded this portrait of Pell as a person is but the account of his reactions to the emerging accusations of child abuse (over many years) appears to be well-documented by Marr.
It made me think a lot about the changing context for the crime of child abuse. When I was at high school, in the early 70s, there was a teacher who was reputed to touch up kids. I don’t know if it was true or not but the whole town knew of his reputation and warned their kids against being alone with him (he was the First Aid Officer as well as a teacher – it certainly had the effect of reducing illness at school.) He lived with this clouded reputation and no one really did anything about the alleged behaviour. It would have been pretty horrible to be him, even worse to be his wife or one of his children, and even worse if the accusations were true and he was someone who routinely touched up kids. Where I am going here is that there was a kind of acceptance or tolerance of this scenario that would NEVER be accepted now. Which is good; we’ve come a long way. I’m not writing this to somehow let Pell off the hook; it’s clear that the Catholic Church has been well out of step for many years in terms of community attitudes about the preferred consequences for priests caught abusing children and young people.
Marr’s book provides a timeline of the reactions of the church over time, and of Pell over time. It makes pretty ugly reading. “Evil men and their orgies of destruction of young lives occupy much of its space, and it is more a forensic piling-up of evidence than any artistically choreographed revelation. Centrally, it's an indictment of Pell for blind, evasive, flint-hearted reactions to reports of paedophilia by priests who were his responsibility. For good measure, there is also a ready summary of the case brought against Pell by two former altar boys turned criminals, a case where the outcome was a technical draw.” (www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/ch...)
Marr spoke recently of his motivation for writing this essay: “Working on the life and politics of Tony Abbott over the last couple of years I kept stumbling over Pell. John Hewson told me that at “the big end of town” in Sydney they reckon an Abbott government will be driven by John Howard on one side and George Pell on the other. It’s not going to be quite like that but Pell is Abbott’s confidant, spiritual adviser and fellow faith-based, rock-solid conservative. Knowing more about Pell will tell us something about the temper of this country’s next government…It is the story of a leader slow to grasp what was happening, slow to shift his focus from protection of the church to care for the victims, slow to realise that the religious cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny.” (http://indies.com.au/IndiesAdmin/Obje...)
Predictably, it’s been controversial. There are some crazy bloggers out there who hate Marr. Pell, who declined to be interviewed, must have worked for a while with his PR spin-doctors to come up with a one-liner ''A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about the author.'' I thought this reviewer had some valid points: “The limitations of Marr's account are the obverse of its virtues. It is not a dispassionate judgment but a prosecution brief. It sifts Pell's motives and words but not those of his critics, and simplifies complexities. The details of the essay are designed to imply character. Churches are empty or full depending on the needs of the plot; Pell does not speak but booms. If a cock crows in a distant farmyard it crows for the Cardinal alone. This makes for engaging reading, but also asks for careful judgment.”(www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?...)
Marr writes about ”the Ellis ruling” – a court judgement in respect on one alleged victim of child abuse which established that the church could not be sued easily (priests could not be seen to be employees for instance). It’s not entirely fair to conflate Pell and the Catholic Church but he has occupied significant positions of power in Australia in the church. The way in which the church has worked to protect its assets, to fudge and deflect blame, and, in earlier days, to simply shift criminal priests around is simply disgusting. I was shocked that these practices lasted until recently. I kept thinking about standards and protocols around children in the schools I taught in, compared to what was occurring in some Catholic schools at the same time. It’s no wonder that many people have lost faith and that the church appears to be losing relevance in Australia. But it will be interesting to watch Pell over the coming years in the light of this essay.
It made me think a lot about the changing context for the crime of child abuse. When I was at high school, in the early 70s, there was a teacher who was reputed to touch up kids. I don’t know if it was true or not but the whole town knew of his reputation and warned their kids against being alone with him (he was the First Aid Officer as well as a teacher – it certainly had the effect of reducing illness at school.) He lived with this clouded reputation and no one really did anything about the alleged behaviour. It would have been pretty horrible to be him, even worse to be his wife or one of his children, and even worse if the accusations were true and he was someone who routinely touched up kids. Where I am going here is that there was a kind of acceptance or tolerance of this scenario that would NEVER be accepted now. Which is good; we’ve come a long way. I’m not writing this to somehow let Pell off the hook; it’s clear that the Catholic Church has been well out of step for many years in terms of community attitudes about the preferred consequences for priests caught abusing children and young people.
Marr’s book provides a timeline of the reactions of the church over time, and of Pell over time. It makes pretty ugly reading. “Evil men and their orgies of destruction of young lives occupy much of its space, and it is more a forensic piling-up of evidence than any artistically choreographed revelation. Centrally, it's an indictment of Pell for blind, evasive, flint-hearted reactions to reports of paedophilia by priests who were his responsibility. For good measure, there is also a ready summary of the case brought against Pell by two former altar boys turned criminals, a case where the outcome was a technical draw.” (www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/ch...)
Marr spoke recently of his motivation for writing this essay: “Working on the life and politics of Tony Abbott over the last couple of years I kept stumbling over Pell. John Hewson told me that at “the big end of town” in Sydney they reckon an Abbott government will be driven by John Howard on one side and George Pell on the other. It’s not going to be quite like that but Pell is Abbott’s confidant, spiritual adviser and fellow faith-based, rock-solid conservative. Knowing more about Pell will tell us something about the temper of this country’s next government…It is the story of a leader slow to grasp what was happening, slow to shift his focus from protection of the church to care for the victims, slow to realise that the religious cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny.” (http://indies.com.au/IndiesAdmin/Obje...)
Predictably, it’s been controversial. There are some crazy bloggers out there who hate Marr. Pell, who declined to be interviewed, must have worked for a while with his PR spin-doctors to come up with a one-liner ''A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about the author.'' I thought this reviewer had some valid points: “The limitations of Marr's account are the obverse of its virtues. It is not a dispassionate judgment but a prosecution brief. It sifts Pell's motives and words but not those of his critics, and simplifies complexities. The details of the essay are designed to imply character. Churches are empty or full depending on the needs of the plot; Pell does not speak but booms. If a cock crows in a distant farmyard it crows for the Cardinal alone. This makes for engaging reading, but also asks for careful judgment.”(www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?...)
Marr writes about ”the Ellis ruling” – a court judgement in respect on one alleged victim of child abuse which established that the church could not be sued easily (priests could not be seen to be employees for instance). It’s not entirely fair to conflate Pell and the Catholic Church but he has occupied significant positions of power in Australia in the church. The way in which the church has worked to protect its assets, to fudge and deflect blame, and, in earlier days, to simply shift criminal priests around is simply disgusting. I was shocked that these practices lasted until recently. I kept thinking about standards and protocols around children in the schools I taught in, compared to what was occurring in some Catholic schools at the same time. It’s no wonder that many people have lost faith and that the church appears to be losing relevance in Australia. But it will be interesting to watch Pell over the coming years in the light of this essay.
November 13, 2020
evil man and institution
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