'Grievously wounded': Archbishops tackle Pell child-sex abuse conviction at Sunday mass
The soul of the Catholic Church "has been grievously wounded from the evil of sexual abuse", Melbourne's Archbishop Peter Comensoli told worshippers at St Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday.
The Archbishop acknowledged the damage the revelation of Cardinal George Pell's conviction on child sex abuse charges had wrought, telling the congregation: "It feels like we have reached Golgotha [the place where Christians believe Jesus was crucified], where the smell of death is thick in the air and the sense of panic and confusion is pervasive."
He added that the church now had to focus on "actions that are transfiguring".
Archbishop Comensoli pointed to the "vastly divergent positions" people had taken on the Pell conviction, "from cries of condemnation to cries of injustice".
"What has spoken to me in all these posts and tweets is that they express something of the point of desolation at which God's Church in Melbourne has arrived," he said.
"There is the desolation of those among us who have suffered the terrible scourge of abuse; there is the desolation of survivors, families and communities struggling with a leadership who failed them; there is the desolation of believers whose faith and hope has been choked by damning revelation after damning revelation."
Last week Archbishop Comensoli said Pell remained a friend and that he would visit him in prison if Pell was sentenced to jail.
In Sydney, the city's most senior Catholic, Archbishop Anthony Fisher, told worshippers on Sunday not to be "too quick to judge" in relation to Pell's conviction over child sexual abuse.
"As the Cardinal’s matter is ongoing in the courts I cannot comment on the substance," he said at a solemn mass at St Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday morning.
"Others have done so, and some have raised serious questions for the appellate court to examine. If we are too quick to judge we can end up joining the demonisers or the apologists, those baying for blood or those in denial.
"Our readings remind us that things are not always what they seem; that we must look beneath the surface and allow truth and justice to unfold in God's good time."
Archbishop Fisher said he prayed for the Catholic church to "emerge from present trials purified, humbled, more compassionate" saying he felt the "shock and pain" of the church's victims.
Archbishop Fisher's comments on the Pell case had a mixed response among attendees.
Worshipper Stewart Davies, 71, said Archbishop Fisher was being "very diplomatic" by asking people not to judge too quickly, but this "could be misconstrued. People are going to say, well maybe he knows something that we don't."
However, a woman who gave her name only as Monica said she felt Archbishop Fisher had struck the right balance.
Sunday's comments from the Archbishops of Sydney and Melbourne come after other high-profile Australians defended Pell following the revelation of his conviction earlier in the week.
Former prime minister John Howard provided a character reference for Pell, while another former PM, Tony Abbott, rang the disgraced cardinal on Tuesday after the suppression over the guilty verdict was lifted.
Mr Abbott said friends of the cardinal, including himself, were devastated by the result.
Pell was found guilty of five charges for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys inside St Patrick's Cathedral in East Melbourne in December 1996, after Sunday mass.
He also attacked one of the boys early in 1997. Pell, who was the Archbishop of Melbourne at the time, maintains he is innocent.