Freed Cardinal Pell writes of evil and suffering in Easter message
Newly freed Cardinal George Pell spoke of evil, suffering and his time in prison in his Easter message published on Saturday.
Pell, 78, was released from Melbourne jail on Tuesday after Australia’s High Court acquitted him of child sexual assault convictions.
“Every person suffers. None escapes all the time,” Pell wrote in a message published in The Australian newspaper, which has been a strong supporter of the cardinal.
“I have just spent 13 months in jail for a crime I didn’t commit, one disappointment after another,” he said.
Pell was removed from his senior financial post in the Vatican in 2018 in the midst of his criminal prosecution on sexual assault of a choirboy in 1996 when he was Archbishop of Melbourne.
In his message he questioned why there is so much evil and suffering in the world and asked “why did this happen to me.”
He also made a brief mention of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
“The sexual abuse crisis damaged thousands of victims. From many points of view the crisis is also bad for the Catholic Church, but we have painfully cut out a moral cancer and this is good,” he said.
Read also: Paul McCartney’s handwritten ‘Hey Jude’ lyrics sold at auction
Pell was driven the 900 kilometres from Melbourne to Sydney on Thursday and is currently in seclusion at a Sydney seminary.
It is unclear whether Pell will return to his previous senior position in the Vatican, take a clerical role in Australia, or retire. (dpa)
