Tag: Reading Pell

Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson And George Pell

Thomas Jefferson was born on the 13 April, 1743, in the American state of Virginia.

The 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was a document Jefferson wanted to be remembered for.

These words are from this Statute: “Almighty God hath created the mind free ……. all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness ……. Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error …….”

On April 13, 2019, the imprisoned Cardinal George Pell received a letter from an anonymous Vatican writer which included this thought: “I am afraid that now you have to pay also for your unshaken Catholicity, but thus you are very close to the Lord.”

I have no doubt at all that Cardinal Pell now rests in peace.

But while I am alive, speaking up against the injustice done to him is something I need to do.

That Freedom And Necessity Of Speech is God-given.

Praise The Lord.

Geoff Fox, 13th April, 2025, Melbourne, Australia.

Reading Pell #1 David Farrer and Some Thought From Mark Twain

“There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him …… “ – Mark Twain. (N.B. As with many things written by Mark Twain, I prefer enjoying the humour of this quote over pretending that I know whether or not every single part of it is true.)

When Anglican David Farrer was ordained as a bishop, Roman Catholic stalwart George Pell stood beside him.

Later, as a Cardinal trusted by both Pope Benedict and then Pope Francis, George Pell became the second most successful Australian Catholic ever behind Saint Mary of the Cross.

Some voices I have heard rate Pell’s prison journal as one of the greatest works of literature produced in Australia.

In the Catholic Weekly, independent schoolmaster Michael E Daniel wrote: “It ranks with other literature written by people of faith who suffered imprisonment, including Walter Ciszek, Francis Xavier Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan and Thomas More, and may prove – with the test of time – to be a spiritual classic.”

Bishop David Farrer expresses his admiration of Cardinal George Pell’s prison journal in this clip made today. The bishop describes the journal as “remarkably uplifting” and helpful for prayer.

How can ordinary people make sense of all this?

Today is the 113th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death in 1910.

Perhaps the following words of Twain can help us to see that there is no single easy human way to fully comprehend why Pell’s life in Australia finished as it did:

“Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them.”

Geoff Fox, 21st April, 2023, Down Under