"He'd be very well known in America, for instance. "He's giving papers, opening conferences, talking to groups in lots of different countries." Fisher doubts that many Australians realise what an ecclesiastical celebrity we have on our hands. "He's an international man," says Anthony Fisher, bishop of Parramatta and an up-and-coming Pell protégé (hence his nickname, Boy George). "I'm sure I would," he says evenly, "but it would be much less pleasant." Then I see the problem - with Pell's large frame, he might not fit into an economy seat. It crosses my mind that if Jesus lived in the jumbo-jet era, he would take his chances with the poor and unwashed at the back of the plane. He and Dame Edna's alter-ego have often conversed over the years, he says, though they didn't have a chance to do so on the flight in question because Humphries was in business class and he was in first. "I think he's enormously clever and a very interesting social commentator." "We are now the largest denomination, having passed the Anglicans. "Australia is 26 per cent Catholic," he pointed out in a speech he gave in Ireland last year. The Catholic Church is by far the biggest non-government organisation in the country, and since he bestrides it like a colossus, he already wields considerable clout. The truth is, pell doesn't need the ear of a prime minister to put his stamp on Australian life. she could say, 'George, you're not going out wearing those dorky black socks with sandals, are you?' " "I've seen him going for walks in his sandals and black socks," Keneally says. Now the seminary is a hotel school and the novelist is a neighbour of Pell's in an upmarket residential development on the St Patrick's estate. Like Abbott, Keneally trained for the priesthood at St Patrick's Seminary, on Sydney's Manly peninsula, before deciding a life of prayer and celibacy wasn't for him. Abbott was criticised once for coming to see me by another politician who, in fact, had been in to see me himself some weeks or months previously."Īrchbishop George Pell with then prime minister John Howard in 2002. "I think he's probably emerged as the most formidable opposition leader in Australian history."Ībbott isn't alone in seeking his advice and spiritual guidance, Pell adds. "I admire him as a very decent and competent fellow," the cardinal says. Once or twice I've sought his counsel on important matters where I thought he would have insight and wisdom I didn't think others would likely have." Pell tells me he and Abbott have been friends for years. "Occasionally, I will ring him to ask if we could catch up. "Occasionally, he will ring me with a thought," the politician continued.
Tony Abbott was recently quoted as saying that Pell was "a person of significance and influence" in his life. In 2010, then-Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd meets Cardinal George Pell and Cardinal Vigano at an event in Rome. "The flavour of Australian Catholicism has changed quite a bit since he became cardinal," Maddox says. In the view of theologian and political commentator Marion Maddox, Pell is one of those rare individuals capable of reshaping an institution in his own image. To John Buggy, spokesman for Australian Reforming Catholics, "he is rather a nasty man with very few redeeming features". To federal Coalition leader Tony Abbott, "Cardinal Pell is one of the greatest churchmen that Australia has seen". In speeches, newspaper columns and pronouncements from the pulpit, he delivers judgment on the big issues of the day, denouncing the Greens party as "anti-Christian" and dismissing climate-change concern as "a symptom of pagan emptiness" with the same conviction that he preaches about the sinfulness of contraception, abortion and sex outside marriage. "There is a right way of living," he says on the phone from Rome, "and it is our task to try to find it and follow it."Īctually, Pell seems to see it as his task to keep the rest of us on the right path - not just Catholics but society in general. In ordinary conversation, his remarks can sound like excerpts from a sermon. His voice has the sonorous quality of one accustomed to making himself heard in the back pews of a cathedral. Though he walks with a stoop, he has an imperious air that makes him seem even larger than he really is. Pell is an imposing figure - more than 190 centimetres tall, with steel-grey hair and a solid build.