Cardinal Pell, the Media Pile-on and Collective Guilt by Gerard Henderson

New Edition - Feb 2024

Paperback, 480 pages, $39.95

ISBN 9781922449818

A very good read. Even if one did not study more than the time interval taken to cross the Cathedral, a very serious doubt was raised as to Cardinal Pell’s guilt. Thank you for writing this book. It is an important contribution to the efforts to establish a Criminal Cases Review Commission – as in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. Effective protections against miscarriages of justice in Australia must be there for all serious cases, even for a cardinal.  – The Hon Michael Kirby AC, CMG – former justice of the High Court of Australia

This book is immensely detailed. It is so hard to convince minds closed by powerful feelings against Cardinal Pell of the injustice inflicted on him.  But it’s an important record of what was done to him by many in the media, police, prosecution service, politicians and Victorian judiciary. – The Hon. Douglas Drummond KC – former justice of the Federal Court of Australia

 

...a meticulous chronology which draws together all the stakeholders, as they would call themselves, in the attempted destruction of Cardinal George Pell. As Gerard illustrates so eloquently, they believed what they wanted to believe. 

– Margaret Cunneen SC launching Cardinal Pell, The Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt

 

...a detailed but rollicking read that does question why some journalists failed to test the claims of their sources before publishing them. The book also focuses on flaws in the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

– Chris Mitchell, The Australian

Read this book to see how many journalists – not least the ABC’s Louise Milligan and David Marr – seemed guided by little more than malice and blind prejudice. 

– Andrew Bolt, The Spectator Australia

- Chief Justice Susan Kiefel, High Court of Australia quoting from the judgment of all seven judges of the High Court – Chief Justice Susan Kiefel and Justices Virginia Bell, Stephen Gageler, Patrick Keane, Geoffrey Nettle, Michelle Gordon and James Edelman in George Pell v The Queen, 7 April 2020

***

The trial, retrial and conviction for historical child sexual assault of Cardinal George Pell, the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Holy See in Rome, gained international attention.  In April 2020, in a remarkable unanimous decision, the High Court of Australia quashed the conviction.

Gerard Henderson BA (Hons) LLB, PhD is executive director of The Sydney Institute – a forum for debate and discussion which enjoys good relations with both sides of Australian politics. He is a columnist for the Weekend Australian and writes the weekly Media Watch Dog blog. Gerard Henderson presented the ABC TV Four Corners program on former Australian Labor prime minister Bob Hawke in August 1994 and was a panelist on the ABC TV Insiders program between 2002 and 2019. His books include Australian Answers, Menzies’ Child: The Liberal Party of Australia and Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man.