Cardinal George Pell was buried in Australia on Thursday after a funeral Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
Alongside dignitaries of Church and state, The Catholic Weekly reported that 2,000 mourners gathered to secure seats while others followed the funeral from outside, where 150 protesters also assembled.
The four-hour Mass featured an offertory motet composed by Sir James MacMillan, based on the text of Wisdom 3:1-4 (which begins “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God”) and the late cardinal’s motto “Be not afraid”.
The homily from the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher OP, and eulogies from Pell’s brother David and the former prime minister Tony Abbott, were punctuated by applause from the congregation and shouts of “George Pell, go to Hell” from protesters outside.
Archbishop Fisher called the late cardinal “a lion of the Church”.
“He had a big heart, too, strong enough to fight for the faith and endure persecution, but soft enough to care for priests, youth, the homeless, prisoners and imperfect Christians,” he said.
In his address, David Pell insisted that his brother had been “a friend of Pope Francis”.
He also reflected – as did Mr Abbott – on “the relentless campaign to smear George’s life” and on the cardinal’s imprisonment in 2018 on charges of child sex abuse, which saw him placed in solitary confinement for 404 days before the conviction was quashed.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ, a critic of Pell but one of his most consistent public advocates during his trial and imprisonment, was among the 30 bishops and 220 priests in attendance.
Speaking to Sky News after the funeral, Fr Brennan said that its had been “a very solemn, very long liturgy, the style of liturgy that he very much liked and used to evangelise about”.
“Pell was one of those Catholic Church leaders for whom tradition and authority were very important, but when it came to unity in the Church the precondition for him was that you had to be on the same page in terms of tradition and authority,” he said.
Commenting on Pell's anonymously-written article attacking the Francis pontificate, Fr Brennan suggested that it could be “a sign in this era of change that even those who are more conservative in the Catholic Church see that there is a place for robust discussion”.
According to The Catholic Weekly, a small number of mourners clashed with protesters outside the cathedral and police had to separate the groups. One protester was arrested.
Plans for the cardinal’s funeral had caused some controversy in Australia, where public figures are often accorded state funerals. The federal government did not offer one for the often-controversial Pell after he died in Rome on 10 January.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the premier of New South Wales, Dominic Perottet, did not attend the funeral but sent Catholic MPs as representatives. The leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton, did attend, along with former prime ministers Mr Abbott and John Howard.
Fr Brennan told Sky News that the Pope's sympathy and support for Pell during his trial and imprisonment stemmed from a shared experience of “dirty state operations” during Francis' time heading the Jesuits in Argentina.
Brennan, who sat in on the trial, called it “a nasty and unprincipled sting operation”. He revealed that Pell had asked him to attend, telling him “you'll go over better with the literati and glitterati”.
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