Many rumours and half-truths have been flying about in regard to what happened to the body of Cardinal Pell after his death. Actually, there are also a number of rumours about the cause of his death itself, but that is not the theme of this article.
Rather, I’d like to propose a scenario centred around his corpse, one which includes a modest amount of anecdotal evidence.
After it had been reported that Pell’s body was “grossly disrespected” by having its nose broken and being left dirty, without shoes and with clothes just thrown on top of it, a new version of the story has emerged. George Pell’s brother now claims he was perfectly happy with the treatment of the body.
David Pell told The Australian that his brother’s nose “was askew” but that it “could have been broken by the lid of his tight-fitting coffin.” David Pell also thought it reasonable that the Cardinal was without shoes because they just wouldn’t fit into the coffin and clarified that he was clothed but that the vestments were in the wrong order.
I personally find these statements rather troubling. Surely the workers at a reputable funeral parlour would be capable of selecting the correct-sized coffin – one that would account for a large body’s nose and shoes? Is that not simply part of their job? How often do funeral parlours break people’s noses!? Cardinal Pell was a large man, but he wasn’t morbidly obese. There was nothing remarkable about his stature from a coffin-maker’s point of view.
Regarding his vestments: presumably the funeral directors who prepared the body were very familiar with the vestments of Catholic prelates. This was Rome, after all. It seems significant that the Cardinal’s vestments, which played such an integral part in disproving the allegations against him, are again relevant to the mystery surrounding his body’s post-autopsy experiences. [If the reader doesn’t understand what I’m talking about, let him consider the restrictions placed on one’s body by a garment that reaches almost to the floor and which has no front opening. In other words, a Bishop’s vestments would be most inconvenient for someone perpetrating opportunistic s** abuse.]
One online commentator, a Benepapist famous for her histrionic denunciations of all and sundry, has accused the Pell family of being “paid off”. I believe that to be a most uncharitable take on the situation.
It seems far more likely that the family were told that Pell’s nose was broken by the coffin lid and told that his shoes were too big for the coffin. They must have taken it at face value and that would have been the end of it as far as they were concerned.
Again, I present the photograph of the coffin as it lay in state in Santo Stefano degli Abissini prior to the Cardinal’s Requiem Mass.
As was pointed out in my previous article, the screw-holes in the coffin’s lid have been filled with a very light- coloured filler, giving it a most unprofessional finish. This is consistent with the coffin being re-opened some time after it left the funeral home.
So I am not suggesting that David Pell was lying. Rather, I am suggesting that he and the family might be just a little naïve – and they were probably in shock, after all. They trusted whomever told them a yarn about the Cardinal’s body – and that someone may well have actually had a hand in the desecration itself, or at least in hiding the fact.
There is precedent for my opinion. Naïveté can run in the family, even among very good and upright people, perhaps especially among good people.
George Pell was known for sometimes making the most disastrous appointments. There is one Australian Bishop, no stranger to the pages of this website, who was a product of the late Cardinal Pell. Pell mentored him, and brought him up through the ranks of the Church to his present high status.
That man is a complete buffoon, without class or culture, an ecumaniac and sycophant to all things LGBT. It is possible that he should never have been a priest, much less a bishop and I actually once heard a priest say that if it hadn’t been for George Pell, that man would “still be sitting on his couch, watching the footy.” Or words to that effect.
In short, George Pell made a huge mistake when he decided that man was bishop material.
Now Pell was definitely not stupid, and was not corrupt, but on occasion was a very poor judge of character. Perhaps his family shares this honest flaw, making them easy prey for the devious Vatican spin doctors.
A Hypothetical Timeline of Events.
- Death of Pell in Rome on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
- Family is notified and the usual protocols for dealing with the corpse of a prelate are triggered.
- A priority autopsy is performed according to the standards in Rome.
- Corpse is sent to funeral home in Rome for priority treatment: cleaning and embalming are performed, coffin is sealed.
- Prepared corpse is sent to Santo Stefano degli Abissini for veneration, perhaps as early as Wed. 11 (according to one report.)
- Coffin is reopened at the Santo Stefano degli Abissini church (possibly during the night) and the body is desecrated/abused/ritually humiliated. Abuse includes breaking of Pell’s nose and sullying the body which results in the embalming being “buggered up” (in the words of David Pell.)
- The abusers re-seal the coffin lid using a new, lighter coloured filler in the screw holes.
- Pell’s body is venerated for several days with coffin (unusually for a bishop) closed.
- Pell’s body transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica for a Requiem Mass on Saturday Jan. 14th.
- Pell’s body is flown to Australia ahead of the burial on Feb 2, 2023.
- Desecration is discovered when the coffin is re-opened in Sydney.
Ecclesiastical Freemasonry 