It's my view that if George Pell's appeal is upheld on a legal technicality that Australians will be disgusted and the damage to trust in our legal system massive. The messages such exoneration will send to victims, to those who trust legal processes, to whistle-blowers and to church goers hoping for The Church to be 'cleansed' will be profound.
Those more articulate than I have summarised where we're currently at:"... For nearly 20 years, the Australian Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse was shaped by a child molester.
Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on sexual assault charges this week has so many ramifications, of such importance, it is difficult to know where to look first.
Much has already been made of the implications of Pell’s conviction for ordinary Australian Catholics, and for the church they attend. His public disgrace will have an enormous impact on the tenure of Pope Francis, who placed Pell in charge of the Vatican’s finances and has struggled to respond to sexual abuse within the church.
When Pell was merely Australia’s most senior Catholic, his efforts to protect the church from survivors of clergy abuse were legendary. His conviction casts those efforts in a new and horrific light: he was not simply callous, he was complicit. Pell built entire legal architectures, placed innumerable obstacles in the way of survivors and their loved ones, spent decades and millions of dollars, not only to protect the church but to protect himself. …"
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/law-crime/2019/03/01/george-pells-conviction/15513984677566
