Cardinal Pell ‘fearlessly faced his cross in Australia & Rome’ says secretary
Cdl. Pell had many losses, but only losses of the earthly world, thus his losses can be viewed as purifications, said his former secretary.
(PerMariam) — January 10 marked the second anniversary of the death of George Cardinal Pell. The late Australian prelate is regarded by many Catholics as a heroic prelate who faced persecution from those within and outside of the Catholic Church.
In a special Mass for the repose of Cdl. Pell’s soul in Rome on his second anniversary, Father Joseph Hamilton – secretary to the cardinal in latter years – commented that the cardinal suffered many “losses of many sorts on his path to Confessorship – reputational, financial – but never moral nor spiritual, and as such those losses would more properly be termed as purifications.”
Reflecting on Cdl. Pell’s life just after his sudden death in 2023, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said that “he was a great witness to the truth of the gospel and worked very well and diligently in the Lord’s vineyard. But he also suffered much for the Church of Christ and has been slandered and innocently thrown into prison because of his fidelity to the crucified and risen Jesus.”
Cdl. Pell – who served as Prefect of the newly established Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019 – had as his motto “Be not afraid.”
The reason for this, Fr. Hamilton explained, was not just to pay homage to Pope John Paul II, but to inspire Australian Catholics who were, at the time, so afraid.
Always keen to be faithful to the Church’s Tradition, Cdl. Pell – said his secretary – became greatly devoted to the topic of tradition in his last few months.
In his final months that became a favored theme of the Cardinal’s conversation; are we custodians of the Tradition, or do we believe ourselves to be its Masters? For those who have thought and think themselves the masters of the Apostolic Tradition, inevitably become first detractors and then desecrators. The rotten fruit of their work is abundant and obvious. It is a question that we should all ponder tonight.
The cardinal’s lot, said Fr. Hamilton, was to be faithful to the cross without fear.
The full text of Fr. Hamilton’s January 10 homily is found below, printed here with permission. The Mass was celebrated in the Domus Australia chapel in Rome, which Cdl. Pell was heavily involved in restoring.
Homily for Cardinal Pell’s second anniversary
On this day in 49BC, Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Suetonius attributed to Caesar, alea iacta est, the die is cast. The ensuing civil war as we all know, would result in Caesar being created dictator.
I am not a huge fan of non-Christian references in homilies, but His Eminence was – Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Julius Caesar. So as a mark of respect, I threw it in there this evening. But also because His Eminence, during the course of his life, crossed many Rubicons.
He did so as Rector of the seminary in Melbourne, he did so as Archbishop of Sydney, and he did so as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. And with the crossing of each Rubicon he assembled a band of eclectic allies and implacable enemies—just the kind of narrative that historians and journalists delight to delve into, casting their nets into the river of time in the hope of extracting choice morsels.
But that is not our narrative. Gathered here for Mass, as faithful and priests, we reflect upon his testimony and witness, and pray for the repose of his soul.
We can start with the biography, the early years, the formation, the priesthood, the episcopate, the Cardinalate, and all that is important: as the Catholic Church is the corporate memory of Christianity. But most of all, tonight, in this chapel of the Queen of the Rosary which the Cardinal loved, shadowed by his coat of arms, we gather to contemplate the supernatural, the mysteries beyond the earthly, which he has gone before us to contemplate, and where we will surely follow.
The heraldry above us proclaims the words “be not afraid.” {On Cdl. Pell’s coat of arms, emblazoned above the altar} The Cardinal chose them, as he told me, not just because they were the first words spoken by Pope Saint John Paul II on becoming Pontiff, but because at that time in Australia, when he became a bishop, so many Catholics were afraid. The Church was in a state of upheaval at the time.
As we reflect upon his life this evening, and as we raise prayers for the suffrage of his soul I wonder how many of us, how many Catholics across the world did Cardinal George Pell shelter from our fears so that we could press ahead?
On a very personal note, he drop-kicked my procrastinating backside into his seminary, and once the shadow of his protection was removed, the Church, the world, the priesthood, became a more frightening place. And so I say particularly to my brother priests this evening, we have no better model, nor a more challenging exhortation from our Cardinal than to mitigate, to take away the fear of the souls entrusted to us.
If we are not doing that to some extent, as priests, if we do not aspire protect the souls entrusted to our care then we fail in our duties as shepherds.
For the entirety of his priestly ministry were set against him the forces of darkness, manifesting both naturally and supernaturally. Most disturbingly those manifestations arose both intra and extra ecclesia. But he was never dismayed.
The unique action of grace upon a formidable Aussie nature really gave truth to his episcopal motto “Be not afraid.” The Cardinal suffered many losses of many sorts on his path to Confessorship – reputational, financial – but never moral nor spiritual, and as such those losses would more properly be termed as purifications.
But the reason for our Mass tonight is not to continue to eulogise him, history will now take up that task. As I just said, this evening we gather to pray for the repose of his soul and to ask for his intercession, as we carry the forward the torch of Catholic Christianity as he did, both in Australia and Rome. By doing so, we honor his example.
In the brief time since his passing, it seems almost as if the same forces of darkness against which he stood so valiantly stand poised to blanket the Church in a second darkness; from Australia to America, the Church is riven by confusion, division.
We are confronted for the first time in centuries by relentless and unedifying attacks upon the deposit of the faith, the persecution of the simple faithful. At times it seems we are entering into a new Arian crisis, this time being played out in the West rather than the East. And with no real theology at its heart; animated rather by a hatred of the Apostolic Tradition.
In his final months that became a favored theme of the Cardinal’s conversation; are we custodians of the Tradition, or do we believe ourselves to be its Masters? For those who have thought and think themselves the masters of the Apostolic Tradition, inevitably become first detractors and then desecrators. The rotten fruit of their work is abundant and obvious. It is a question that we should all ponder tonight.
All it takes is few steps from the path of Apostolic tradition and the way of life is rapidly becomes lost, for such is the power of our enemy to twist that which is good, and lead souls into the way of death. Like His Eminence we must hold firm, or as he would say, “uh, when the going gets tough the tough get going.”
I began this evening somewhat whimsically quoted the apocryphal Julius Caesar, but for His Eminence there was only one Roman Emperor worthy of devotion, and that was Constantine. For the Cardinal, any new publication on Church history could be judged by its treatment of the fourth century emperor. If a text approved of Constantine, it was worthwhile. If not into the bin. I often asked myself why? To many scholars Constantine was a bit of a thug, capable of pretty much anything, baptized on his deathbed by an Arian sympathizer.
But to Cardinal Pell, who had taken up his cross to follow Jesus, and with his eyes always on that cross, Constantine’s vision somehow resonated. Cardinal Pell held that the words the Emperor received in his vision that fateful night in 313 before the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and not three miles from this chapel were proved true by the civilisational pivot he initiated that would bring about Christendom before the close of the fourth century.
But whereas Constantine saw a cross in the sky and heard the words, “in hoc signo vinces,” for our Cardinal who fearlessly faced his cross in Australia and Rome those words might be modified to per crucem ad lucem, through the cross to the light.
May the soul of George Cardinal Pell and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
Father Joseph Hamilton
Thank you for sharing this.