[Spacetrucker]

Whole I do sympathize with Cardinal Pell for his unjust imprisonment, the Catholic church has a problem that, even today, needs to be much more thoroughly and publicly addressed beyond the settlements.

[Rockingham]

Cardinal Pell was innocent on compelling factual grounds but offered a prominent target for rabid prosecutors and anti-Catholic activists. Eventually, even Pell's accuser admitted that the clerical molestation story he told simply could not have applied to Pell as a matter of simple chronology.

To Pell's great credit, despite mistreatment and hostility in prison, he remained a model of Christian humility and compassion. He freely forgave his accuser and those who mistreated him. And Pell never denied or sought to minimize the Church's all too real guilt in so many episodes of clerical abuse.

There is some mystery as to how and precisely why the case against Pell arose. Plausibly, it was aided and spurred on by those responsible for corrupt financial practices in the Vatican which Pope Francis had commissioned Pell to investigate. As it was, the charges against Pell effectively subverted that effort.