The integrity of Australia's judicial system is underpinned by the principle that those accused of a crime are considered innocent until proved guilty. Also of fundamental importance to our courts' credibility and authority is the tenet of blind justice – everyone is equal before the law.
It is of paramount importance that these preconditions of natural justice apply in the treatment of Cardinal George Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and one of the world's most senior Catholic figures, in the wake of the historical sexual abuse charges laid against him on Thursday by Victoria Police, after it received an assessment from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Over a number of years, Vatican-based Cardinal Pell has repeatedly and emphatically denied ever having committed any sexual crime. He says he will return to Australia as soon as possible to clear his name and vigorously contest the charges. He has been summonsed to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 26, and has been co-operating with the police.
Many people might welcome the charges, largely because the four-year Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard abundant evidence the Catholic Church in Australia, under Cardinal Pell and others, spent more effort and money on protecting child rapists than on seeking to support and financially compensate abuse survivors.
The charges against Cardinal Pell are a further blow to the Catholic Church, which has been damaged by evidence to the commission that countless children were raped and otherwise abused by paedophile priests who were then shielded from justice. Members of the church have been shocked and disillusioned by the evidence of such rampant and repulsive crimes, and of the cover-up. The lives of many victims have been ruined. Many others have taken their own lives.
In addition, results this week from the 2016 census showed the proportion of Australian residents identifying as Catholic has fallen from 25.3 per cent to 22.6 per cent since 2011.
Arriving at a just outcome for the claimants and for Cardinal Pell depends on due process being respected assiduously. Fairness demands that potential jurors are not unduly influenced before any trial, and so public speculation about Cardinal Pell's guilt or innocence is strictly prohibited.
Police have not detailed the charges, and will not be releasing any further official information before the hearing. It is now, finally, up to the courts, and the courts alone, to deliver justice by rigorously testing the claims of the alleged victims and of the man they accuse.
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