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The Pope’s Man on a Mission
Archbishop George Pell makes waves in Australia
By Michael Gilchrist
When the Holy Father appoints a strong, orthodox bishop to a large, important diocese—a diocese long dominated by liberals—this move has special significance for orthodox Catholics worldwide. In such circumstances, can meaningful reforms take root against the odds? Or is it a mission impossible? If there are successes, can they be repeated in other similarly placed dioceses? These questions are pertinent in much of the Western world where the Church, often lacking strong and orthodox leadership, has been steadily eroded by the secular culture.
A case in point is Archbishop George Pell of Melbourne, Australia, who faces challenges that few bishops would envy. On his appointment in 1996 to Australia’s largest archdiocese—with just over one million Catholics—Archbishop Pell inherited a host of problems. During his predecessor’s long episcopate there was a continuing decline in the major statistical indicators of spiritual health, but there was little apparent recognition that the archdiocese was suffering through a major crisis of faith that urgently needed to be addressed.
Thirty years after the conclusion of Vatican II, the Church in Melbourne and in much of Australia seemed to be drifting and rudderless, uncritically receptive to the latest theological, catechetical and liturgical fads, and cowed at times by a mass media tolerant only of an accommodating brand of Catholicism. By 1996, most Catholics in Melbourne (as throughout much of the country) had become accustomed to a “soft” form of the faith that saw conformity with the secular culture, “relevance,” fuzzy identity, few demands, and toleration of most things (except “intolerance”), as signs of progress, and even as required under the mandate of Vatican II. A new generation of parents and teachers, despite up to 13 years of Catholic schooling, had little if any grasp of the basics of the faith, and most embraced the secular culture. That embrace was evident in the general acceptance accorded by Catholics for abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, divorce, and pre-marital sex; in each case, the level of acceptance for these trends among Catholics was scarcely distinguishable from that in the general community.
This situation, of course, is not unique to Melbourne. The picture would be familiar through much of the Western world.
After four years in office, Archbishop George Pell has already made significant progress, although there is much unfinished business. The question among Australia’s orthodox Catholics is that if Archbishop Pell does not succeed, who else can—short of direct divine intervention?
A recent 40-minute profile, screened nationally on ABC-TV’s major religious affairs program Compass, was a grudging recognition of Archbishop Pell’s stature. No other Australian Catholic bishop attracts the level of media coverage he has continued to receive since his appointment—even if the “usual suspects”—dissenting theologians and feminist nuns—are regularly lined up to counter him.
This unusual level of media interest is due not only to Pell’s evident personal qualities and readiness to speak, but also to a realization, inside and outside the Church, that he is without doubt John Paul II’s “man on a mission” in Australia.
The special role being played by this particular archbishop was noted in a feature article in the Australian Financial Review magazine, entitled “Defender of the Faith.” No doubt that perception also explains the widespread hostility—as well as enthusiastic orthodox support—Archbishop Pell has prompted. Among his opponents, there is also a sense of apprehension about his potential impact. A 1998 feature article in the Sydney Morning Herald, written by the London Tablet’s correspondent Chris McGillion, was headed “Bully Bishop.” An article in the March 2000 issue of the Jesuit publication Eureka Street, complained: “Is there a cure for Melbourne’s Catholicism?” while attacking Pell’s admission to the archdiocese of Courage, Father John Harvey’s organization for loyal Catholics who struggle to control their homosexual impulses.
Unique qualifications
Few bishops have come to office as well equipped for leadership responsibilities as Archbishop Pell.
Young George Pell dominated his school life in academic and sporting areas, becoming head prefect of one of Victoria’s top Catholic schools, St. Patrick’s College, Ballarat, and captain of its Australian Rules football team. Before he entered the Melbourne seminary in 1960 (much to the disappointment of his non-Catholic father), the tall and solidly built 18-year-old George was about to be recruited by one of Australia’s major football clubs.
George Pell continued his priestly studies in Rome during the sessions of Vatican II and later completed a doctorate at Oxford. After working in parishes in the Ballarat Diocese for several years, he was appointed Principal [President] of the local Catholic teacher’s college (now a campus of Australian Catholic University). During this period, he coached several junior and senior school football and rowing teams.
After serving for over a decade in this capacity, Father Pell in 1985 was made Rector of the Corpus Christi regional seminary, which trains seminarians for the States of Victoria and Tasmania. However, after only two years, with little time to cement reforms at the seminary, he was consecrated as one of Melbourne’s auxiliary bishops in 1987.
In the period up to his appointment as Archbishop in 1996 (following his predecessor’s premature retirement), Bishop Pell was increasingly visible nationwide through his readiness to participate in media debates as “defender of the faith.” For instance, he came to the public defense of the Pope’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor and his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, when each was attacked in the media, especially by liberal clergy and religious. He also participated in functions organized by orthodox bodies like Catholics United for the Faith, and, following the release of the Ecclesia Dei decree, celebrated a Tridentine Mass annually in St. Patrick’s Cathedral—a practice he has continued as Archbishop. He also continues to be a regular keynote speaker at the Thomas More Center’s annual Summer Schools. (The Center was founded by the late Bob Santamaria, an indefatigable lay Catholic activist.)
The center cannot hold
To set Archbishop Pell’s present challenges in context, it should be recalled that when Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council in 1959, there was little awareness in Australia that reform was an urgent priority. As in the United States, the Church was enjoying a statistical high-water mark, with weekly Mass attendance at around 60 percent (compared with the present national average of 18 percent), and diocesan seminaries and religious houses overflowing with recruits. The laity already played active roles in the life of the Church; the working classes experienced no alienation from the “institutional” Church (of the sort that was visible in parts of Europe); there was a strong awareness of social justice issues; ecumenical cooperation was on the increase. A large proportion of Catholic children attended the Catholic schools, which were run almost exclusively by religious men and women and successfully instilled the basics of the faith. From the early 1960s onwards, these Catholic schools would begin to receive increasing injections of government funds, and today that government subsidy covers most of the costs of a Catholic education—including the salaries paid to the lay teachers, who now account for over 95 percent of all Catholic school faculties. (In hindsight, given the declining Catholic character of many of the schools, some Catholics now consider the government subsidies a mixed blessing.)
The dialogue Mass had been introduced in the 1950s, although Catholics were already encouraged to purchase Latin/English missals in order to stimulate their active participation in the liturgy. Still the vast majority of Catholics dutifully accepted the liturgical reforms that followed Vatican II, without really understanding why they had been introduced, and most found it made Mass an “easier” proposition.
Despite this surface appeal, Mass attendance figures would soon begin to decline sharply. As in North America and Western Europe, by the late 1960s Australian Catholics were beginning to encounter the unsettling impacts of “the spirit of Vatican II” and the cultural turmoil symbolized by Woodstock and the anti-Vietnam demonstrations.
By the 1970s, Australia’s bishops—often, it seemed, ill-prepared and uncomprehending—were presiding over a steady unraveling of the Church—a process which was presented by some experts as fully in keeping with Vatican II “renewal.” Public dissent against Church teachings (especially following the appearance of Humanae Vitae), liturgical abuses, and departures from the religious life and active priesthood became increasingly commonplace. Not surprisingly, the numbers of lay Catholics appearing at Mass and confession, as well as the numbers of young Catholics entering seminaries and religious houses, dried up rapidly. In most dioceses these numbers have continued to decline to this day.
At the same time, and in a marked contrast to the decline in sacramental practice, the Catholic Education Offices in the major population centers, became fields of rapid growth. These offices, fueled by the need to distribute the increasing amounts of government funding for schools, assumed greater power over religion curricula, in-service programs, and staff appointments. Fashionable theories and materials (often imported from the United States), minimizing doctrinal content and maximizing relevance, were embraced and applied in schools and teacher training institutions. At times, the bishops seemed mere spectators, watching what was being done in their name—although some actively climbed aboard the bandwagon.
There was never any public acknowledgment of the fact that this rise in the power of the Church bureaucracy had no effect on the decline in religious practice. The fact that a rapidly shrinking number of young Catholics continued to practice the faith after leaving school was generally attributed not to inadequate catechetics, but rather to factors “outside the Church’s control.” Nor was declining belief and practice connected with liturgical excesses or unchecked theological dissent. Complaints to bishops often went unheeded. And as the number of priests continued to fall throughout Australia, the more “progressive” dioceses now began to emphasize lay-led Communion services, rather than opting for substantial reform in the seminaries or improvements in the vocations programs.
Such was the overall state of affairs when Archbishop Pell took office in mid-1996.
Winds of change
Rather than confronting the long-entrenched bureaucracies, Archbishop Pell has bypassed them, setting up new, parallel positions and filling them with talented, orthodox people who are answerable directly to himself. For instance, Msgr. Peter Elliott returned to Melbourne from the Pontifical Council for the Family in Rome, to become Episcopal Vicar for Religious Education, and is currently overseeing the production of sound religion texts for all grade levels, based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These will begin to become available early in 2001. Other noteworthy appointments have been made in youth ministry, theology, pastoral formation and health care—most of them relatively young people, and all avowedly orthodox.
The changes led to some clear conflicts. When the new religion curriculum was first announced, dissidents attacked it through the media, calling it a throwback to pre-Vatican II “Irish conservatism.” A large feature article in the Age was headed: “Return to the Dark Ages?” In late 1996, the staff of the regional seminary, Corpus Christi College, was invited to accept a set of reforms jointly agreed to by Archbishop Pell and other Victorian bishops. When the staff interpreted this reform program as a vote of no confidence, and submitted their resignations, Archbishop Pell accepted them, and appointed a new staff.
But there have also been clear indications of positive change. Early this year the new vocations director, Father Paul Stuart, reported on the positive trends since Pell’s appointment. In 1996 there were 12 seminarians for the Melbourne archdiocese. This year there are 26, with the numbers continuing to increase.
Opus Dei and the Fraternity of St. Peter—the latter providing a more permanent foundation for those attending Traditional Latin Masses—have been welcomed into the archdiocese. In addition, an Australian branch of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family, a graduate institute of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, will soon open in Melbourne, becoming the first such establishment anywhere in Oceania. As earlier indicated, Father Harvey’s group, Courage, has been admitted to the archdiocese.
The two Melbourne campuses of Australian Catholic University have been re-located from the suburbs to sites closer to the cathedral, as has the seminary. A newspaper report described these developments as “Vatican City Down Under.” Most key sectors of the Church’s administration are now within a stone’s throw of the Archbishop’s office.
A committee of management was appointed to oversee Melbourne’s official Catholic Bookshop, located in the center of the city. Despite some stonewalling by the liberal staff—which had stocked titles by Matthew Fox, Hans Küng, Rosemary Ruether, and the like—unsuitable books have been ordered removed and a display of Ignatius Press books recently set up. As noted several months ago in Catholic World Report, the archbishop circulated a ban on a popular Catholic adult education text by Father Michael Morwood, titled Tomorrow’s Catholic: Understanding God and Jesus in a New Millennium. That move prompted further liberal teeth-gnashing.
Archbishop Pell has not hesitated to speak out publicly on social questions such as drug abuse (he rejected the proposal for “safe” heroin injecting rooms) and excessive gambling. Such is his national prominence that he was an invited participant at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Canberra to discuss the question of Australia’s becoming a republic—Pell himself being a professed supporter of the move. In a different context, an earlier edition of Catholic World Report also outlined his campaign against the offensive Serrano art exhibition.
Archbishop Pell has been firm in his prohibition against illicit intercommunion, even to the extent of directing a State Premier (a non-Catholic) not to present himself for Communion, as he had earlier done at official functions in Catholic churches. The archbishop also sparks media indignation by his continuing refusal to allow Communion to be given to homosexuals who engaged in public demonstrations at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He later issued a pastoral letter explaining the Church’s official stance.
Inheriting a serious crisis connected with earlier mishandling of clerical sex abuse cases, the archbishop has set in place an independent body to monitor complaints and demonstrate that the Church has things under control.
The archbishop has been active in his teaching office. He has instituted an annual series of Pentecost Letters, and released three so far, as well as another pastoral letter on the Sacrament of Penance, (including a ban on the Third Rite, or general confession) and a Pastoral Letter for the 30th Anniversary of “Humanae Vitae.” In the case of the latter, an article in the Age reacted on cue: “Didn’t Archbishop Pell notice the sexual revolution?”
Among the many excellent publications put out by the archdiocese, the latest—Given For You: Meditations on the Eucharist—was produced in time for Lent 2000. Aimed at parish and student discussion groups, it bases itself on Scripture and the new Catechism, with readings from people like John Henry Newman and Mother Teresa. Meanwhile, the contents of the archdiocesan newspaper Kairos have improved markedly over the past four years.
Archbishop Pell’s international stature is recognized in overseas journals. Apart from regular features in Catholic World Report, the Irish Catholic has run several articles on the archbishop, while Inside the Vatican published an interview with him in January 1999. His membership of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith underlines this recognition. Archbishop Pell’s reform efforts in the Archdiocese of Melbourne should continue to be of interest to orthodox Catholics beyond the shores of Australia for some years to come, given their ramifications for the broader state of the Church, especially in similarly placed Western countries.
Michael Gilchrist once taught Australian Church history at Aquinas College, Ballarat (now a campus of Australian Catholic University) at the time when Father George Pell was its principal. Gilchrist is author of several books on Australian Catholicism, including Daniel Mannix: Priest & Patriot and Rome or the Bush (an Australian equivalent of Msgr. George Kelly’s Battle for the American Church). He is currently editor of the religious monthly AD2000.