Australia's Cardinal and his exposed sin.

That in the middle is Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, and the Vatican's treasurer, Cardinal George Pell. This week, after several investigations and a Royal Commission over the last three years, he was convicted of molesting two choirboys in 1996 when he was the Archbishop of Melbourne, and gaoled. His sentencing is to due handed down within a fortnight. For anybody who's followed cases like his (whether they're religious or not) for any decent stretch of time, or even just seen the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, this really shouldn't have been shocking. 

This news is great for anybody who, like me, believes absolutely nobody should be legally untouchable, and especially, of course, for any survivor of or activist against institutional abuse. Since Pell's conviction this week, Pope Francis has ordered a crackdown on clerical abuse and misconduct in the Vatican and I suppose that's something, but casting the net further to prevent such occurrences happening in the future as well as investigating suspicious individuals - and disciplining them if necessary - before outside authorities catch and expose them would be everything. If the Church's high brass at least tried to do both of those, they would improve their public image, save legal authorities a great deal of work and stress, and maybe even acquire more followers. But as it stands, until they forego the Seal of Confession and dare to blow the whistle, they are condoning such abusive treatment. Ditto for practicing Christians among the general public who don't speak out against them.

Back home, there are now calls for Pell to be stripped of his Order of Australia membership, and ultra-conservative former prime minister John Howard, one of the few people who make me genuinely ashamed to be an Australian and the man who bestowed that honour on Pell in 2005, has given him a character reference. Yet another reason for me to despise him. 

But I digress. Pell's faith is no better or worse than any other, and it's only a problematic factor if you consider the vow of chastity demanded of priests to take and keep. But whatever your beliefs, the bottom line is Pell and his ilk are trusted to care for, nourish, discipline and be positive role models for children in their custody and when so many of them choose to instead mistreat them, they are betraying that trust of the children and their families. Pell is 77, a factor which also reportedly inspired a court to withhold his conviction. That is no excuse for clemency for anybody, and if an English court could convict Rolf Harris for the same crimes in his 80s, this court could (and should) have done likewise. And now, Pope Francis has called critics of Catholicism "friends of the Devil." Well, I think that's a quite fitting description for most of his colleagues. But at least, alas, Pell is in the slammer now and hopefully for a long time.