George Pell's sentence divides Catholics at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral
Updated
Abuse survivors and the Catholic faithful have converged at St Patrick's Cathedral, where Cardinal George Pell abused two choirboys, to digest news of the six-year prison sentence handed down on Wednesday morning.
Key points:
- Churchgoers are divided over the sentencing of Australia's former most powerful Catholic
- Catholics attend mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in the hours after Pell is sentenced to six years' jail
- They are met by abuse survivors, who were tying ribbons to the cathedral's fence in honour of abuse victims
Pell was sentenced to six years' jail for sexually abusing the boys when he was Catholic archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
Pell was found guilty by a jury last December of sexually abusing the choirboys after a Sunday mass in December 1996 and then assaulting one of them a second time two months later.
He will be eligible for parole after three years and eight months.
In front of a packed courtroom, Chief Justice Peter Kidd took more than an hour to outline his reasons behind his sentencing of Pell.
As Catholics arrived for afternoon mass, the loved ones and survivors of clergy abuse were at the fence outside St Patrick's Cathedral, tying ribbons as a way to honour the victims.
Worshipper Darryl D'Souza said Pell's conviction and sentencing was a sad situation for Catholics, but it did not change his belief in God or the church.
"I think we have to wait and see what happens at the appeal," Mr D'Souza said.
"This is a really, really sad thing for Catholics like me. We have to accept the decision and pray for the victims.
"At the end of the day our faith is in God's hands and we know people are fallible, priests are fallible too."
Churchgoer Kevin said he was not convinced by the guilty verdict and said the result did not shake his faith in the church.
"Having come to this church, having attended Sunday mass here, having attended George Pell's masses, I find it very difficult to perceive," he said.
"I'm a little disheartened, but Catholics are getting a bashing and it seems like it's a popular thing to do."
'It makes me sick'
Another Catholic man, Andrew, said he hoped Pell would never leave prison.
"I've got three boys in Catholic schools, it makes me sick," he said.
"I think the Catholic Church is shuffling it under the carpet and it makes me sick that I pay school fees to a Catholic system and then some of that money goes to the Catholic Church."
Margaret Turnbull tied a coloured ribbon to the fence and said she believed justice had been served.
"I'm also a survivor and these are for my friends and those victims who haven't survived," she said.
"The sentences are never long enough but the victims have been heard … he has been given a sentence, the courts have prevailed."
She said she had found Pell to be an "arrogant" man.
"I met with him a few years ago when he said his doors were open to victims and I found him arrogant then," she said.
In his sentencing remarks, Chief Judge Kidd described Pell's offending as "breathtakingly arrogant".
Chrissie Foster, whose two daughters were raped by a Catholic priest while they were at primary school in the 1980s, watched Pell's sentencing from Canberra and thought the six-year sentence was reasonable.
She said Pell had always seemed untouchable.
"It was far better than a suspended sentence for a first offence, so [I'm] reasonably happy with it," Ms Foster said.
"It's a very long road to get justice from the Catholic priesthood and now it's happened through our court system, it's a wonderful thing.
"It just seems amazing that it has all gone through and this has been the result."
'I don't have any sympathy for him'
Abuse advocates and legal services weighed in on the sentencing, with some taking aim at the non-parole period, set for three years and eight months.
Vivian Waller, who represented Pell's surviving victim, said it was a very considered judgement.
"I think it was a very considered sentencing and I think the judge went through the things he could take into account and the things he did not," Dr Waller said.
"He was at pains to say a high-profile individual is not being punished for his perceived role in other broader issues."
Bishop Bill Wright from Maitland Newcastle said the sentence has made him renew his commitment to ensure the safety of all children in his diocese.
He said the sentence gave him confidence in the legal system, specifically trial by jury.
"I think the present case confirms that juries are generally diligent and responsible," he said.
Child sexual abuse survivor Andrew, who was assaulted at a different institution, said he had no sympathy for Pell.
"I feel because of his position he should have been sentenced a lot harder," he said.
"I don't have any sympathy for him, to abuse the position he was in, I feel for the victims, I understand the victims."
Lawyer Anna Swain, who works at a legal advice service for sexual abuse survivors, said there had been an influx of calls from people in the wake of Pell's conviction.
"The whole coverage is very triggering and very distressing, considering what they've been through," Ms Swain said.
"People are finally feeling that they are able to use their voices and speak up and be heard."
Topics: catholic, religion-and-beliefs, community-and-society, law-crime-and-justice, crime, courts-and-trials, child-abuse, sexual-offences, melbourne-3000, east-melbourne-3002, vic
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