Cardinal Pell was a living saint who is now where he belongs — with all his fellow saints.
The Australian Catholic may be gone, but he gave us a more honest and transparent Church, as well as a powerful model of personal faith.
I once called Cardinal George Pell a living saint. He didn’t like it.
The occasion was last summer. I had invited the Cardinal to be the keynote speaker at the Napa Institute’s summer conference, where he would have been rapturously received by an audience of 800-plus priests and lay-Catholic leaders. He agreed to come, and in my excitement, I quickly sent a blast email to every attendee and friend of the Institute that said, “a living saint is coming to our summer conference.”
Apparently, I included Cardinal Pell on the list of recipients, because he soon responded with a note of his own. It was terse and to the point, saying: “Please stop the ‘living saint’ bit, as it is embarrassing and devalues the currency.”
Sufficiently chastened, I profusely apologized. But all I could think was: That’s exactly what a living saint would say.
Sadly, Cardinal Pell is no longer with us, having passed away on January 10. Much has already been written about what he did on earth, yet having known him for nearly a decade, I think the more important fact is that he has now received his reward in heaven. Indeed, Cardinal George Pell is surely worshiping in the presence of Christ Himself.
Some may wonder how I can be so confident. Virtually all the obituaries written about the Cardinal have focused on everything but his faith. They emphasize his efforts to reform the Vatican’s finances as a confidant of Pope Francis — a job that made him many powerful enemies. And of course, the media are fixated on the false abuse allegations that saw him sentenced to prison in 2018, only to have his name fully cleared and his sentence unanimously overturned by the Australian Supreme Court in 2020.
These travails did deeply affect Cardinal Pell’s character, but they don’t even begin to tell us the full story of who he was. In fact, they completely neglect the most important thing about Cardinal Pell: that he was a son of God and a man of faith — an undeniable reality to all who knew him, and one I saw time and again.
I first met the Cardinal in Rome shortly after he arrived in 2014 as the Vatican’s prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy. The meeting led to frequent communication that deepened into friendship. Most of our interactions focused on our shared passion for cleaning up the Vatican. Cardinal Pell predicted — wisely, I believe — that the Church’s next crisis will not be sexual abuse, but rather financial abuse.
To avert this crisis, he founded the Internal Business Leaders Advisory Council to educate priests and religious about the fundamentals of financial reporting and accountability. I taught one of its annual courses on development and saw firsthand that Cardinal Pell was training an entire generation of honest and transparent priests from across the world.
With respect to honesty and transparency, Cardinal Pell led by example, openly discussing the financial irregularities that he found within the Vatican. Yet his commitment to reform sprang from something deeper. He despised corruption because he loved Christ’s Church. He sought financial reform because he wanted to steward Christ’s resources. Ultimately, he wanted a pure Church that was fully focused on bringing Christ to more people in more places.
The Cardinal Pell I knew was more evangelist than reformer, a picture of him the media rarely conveyed, and still doesn’t. But even despite his death, anyone can still see this side of Cardinal Pell by reading his many writings, especially his Prison Journals.
Penning them during his 404 days in solitary confinement (part of his wrongful imprisonment over the false abuse allegations), Cardinal Pell had every reason to have a crisis of faith, but he didn’t. Quite the opposite happened: With each letter, his faith deepened, and he eventually emerged from this crushing experience with an even more profound love of God, and an even stronger desire to share the saving message of the Lord.
My respect for Cardinal Pell reached new heights as I read these journals, which is why I called him a living saint last year. He was right to ask that I stop, but I wasn’t wrong to recognize that Cardinal Pell was a good and Godly man. He may be gone, but he gave us a more honest and transparent Church, as well as a powerful model of personal faith. Cardinal Pell was a living saint who is now where he belongs — with all his fellow saints. Cardinal Pell, pray for us!