“We Don’t Mourn A Dead Bigot”: Protesters Send Off Cardinal Pell

The sound of church bells, as pure as any in the world, echoes through the underground halls of St James station.

But commuters expecting to see a traditional wedding or funeral procession after exiting the underground were instead greeted by a conflicting mass of protesters and riot police officers as mourners gathered for the late Cardinal Pell.

Brennan and another group of self-described concerned citizens are standing on the outer fringes of Hyde Park, across the road from hundreds of Catholics preparing to pay their final respects to the disgraced Cardinal at St Mary’s Cathedral. Assisted by fellow protesters, Brendan is bearing a massive sign which reads ‘Infernal Resting Place’ to face the mourners gathered across the road.

“I don’t see it as provocative, to be honest,” Brendan muses about the language on the placard.” At the end of the day, it’s in the Bible that if you breach the cardinal sins… you go to hell.”

As we’re speaking, shouts break out between police and other protesters Brennan is demonstrating with. Allegedly in breach of some unspecified law regarding affixing signs in a public place, protester Leyne is helpless to stop police officers remove a sign belonging to her from the park. She tells me later that officers allegedly started the confrontation by telling her the sign was causing the public “grief”.

Police confiscate protesters’ signs as over 100 people demonstrate outside Cardinal George Pell’s funeral in Sydney. #cardinalpell #pell #cardinal #statefuneral #stmarys #cathedral #sydney #auspol #georgepell #cardinalgeorgepell pic.twitter.com/mH8Pdhlz29

— Empact News (@EmpactNews) February 1, 2023

“That’s what tipped me over the edge. I would say if that hadn’t been said, I might have, remained quite reasonable,” Leyne says dejectedly.

Against this background of raised tensions from police and mourners, the experience for protesters is surreal. “The fact that there’s a funeral going on just across the road is frankly like it’s disgusting,” describes young protester Simonne. “I feel like we have a responsibility to speak out against it for survivors of abuse, women, and members of the LGBTIQ community.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton are among the high-profile attendees today, while the current Prime Minister and New South Wales Premier are both notably absent. The political significance of this isn’t lost on protesters. “It’s not an achievement he hasn’t come out today, it’s actually just the bare minimum,” protester Yasmin replies when asked about the significance of Dominic Perrottet’s absence. “They’re still doing damage to like these communities that Pell discriminated against,” she adds.

The protest, helmed by the LGBTIQ+ organisation Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), was approved at the last minute despite mounting legal pressure from the police. Organiser Kim Stern described the situation as “very frustrating, but not surprising” after fighting safety concerns, multiple affidavits, and a Supreme Court injunction before the protest was finally approved.

“The majority is already on our side. An overwhelming majority of people support abortion rights. A majority of people wanna get rid of the religious exemptions to discrimination, that currently exists in law that allow Catholic institutions to fire staff on the basis of their sexuality and personal lives,” Kim says.

“Today is about sending a message. Not just to the dead, but also to people like Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott who are attending today, or the judges, the politicians, people from the political establishment that want to uphold his legacy.”

I ask Kim what he would say if he was forced to give the eulogy today, to which he replies with a grin, “We don’t mourn a dead bigot; Pell should go to hell.”