On this date six years ago, Cardinal Pell’s entry in his prison journal was and is for me a wonderful account of how his church was his very broad extended family metaphorically speaking.
The entry started with reporting receiving a copy of the above artwork, Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child from “Pauline, a good friend and a Scot from London …..” (The painting shows Mary as a doting mum to Jesus who is held up by two angels.)
The penultimate thought of the Cardinal’s entry that day is this lament:
“Holy Mother Church in Australia and elsewhere has formidable strengths ……. even in a deeply polarised society. But a fundamental decline has to be acknowledged. The challenge is to slow this down and reverse the trend.”
How very true!
Omnia omnibus,
Geoff Fox, December 17, 2025, Melbourne, Australia
THE CRUCIFIED CARDINAL 