At Cardinal George Peel’s funeral in Australia on Thursday, mourners murmured prayers and sang soft hymns but at times protesters drowned him, condemning him to hell.
The Catholic priest – who died last month aged 81 of complications from surgery – has left a complex legacy.
One of the first pope’s top aides, he was Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic.
But his public image was tarnished by unproven allegations that he both covered up and committed child sexual abuse.
The allegations were widely reported in Sydney on Thursday. At one point, police intervened outside St. Mary’s Cathedral to separate angry mourners from chanting protesters. Earlier, one protester was arrested.
Inside the church, where Cardinal Peel served as the city’s archbishop for more than a decade, dignitaries including former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott filled the pews. Hundreds more gathered in a courtyard to watch the requiem mass on big screens.
Conspicuously absent were Prime Minister Anthony Albany and New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrott – himself a devout Catholic. Both sent representatives.
In a message to the congregation, Pope Francis praised Cardinal Pell’s “devotion to the Gospel and the Church”, while Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher hailed him as “a giant of the Catholic Church in Australia”. was wrongly demonized.
Over the course of six decades, Cardinal Pell rose to prominence in the Church as a strong supporter of traditional Catholic values.
He took on the role of Vatican treasurer in 2014 but left in 2017, returning to Australia to face trial over child sexual abuse allegations. He was convicted, then later acquitted on appeal.
Many of Cardinal Pell’s supporters believe he was unfairly persecuted, and that his record on child sexual abuse is part of what made him great.
Mr Abbott, who spoke at the funeral, claimed Cardinal Peel was the first Australian Catholic to dismiss child abusers and report them to the police. Others pointed to the landmark – but controversial – compensation scheme he instituted.
“He was the greatest man I ever knew,” Mr. Abbott said.
