Pell’s vestments: The prosecution’s impossible claim

In his analysis of George Pell’s conviction and sentencing, Quadrant contributor Peter Wales describes the many layers of vestments the then-archbishop was wearing at the time prosecutors assert he molested two 13-year-old choiristers. That section of his essay is reproduced below, a video of a bishop being prepared for Mass in similar sacred garments above:

It was not disputed that he was wearing his eucharistic vestments. For a pontifical high Mass, celebrated by an Archbishop at the main Mass on Sunday in his own cathedral, these customarily consist of a close fitting cassock with thirty-nine buttons from top to bottom, a cincture – a wide band around the waist of the cassock, an alb, a long white robe tied with a rope or cord (both cassock and alb are full-length garments, reaching from neck to floor), and over these a dalmatic and a chasuble, both heavy brocade garments reaching to the knees.

Evidence given by the prosecution’s single witness was that these garments were pushed aside. They cannot be pushed aside. It is just possible that they could be lifted enough to give access to everyday clothes underneath, and that these could then be opened, but the cassock, alb, dalmatic and chasuble would need to be held with one hand the entire time. It would tight and uncomfortable, and movement would be almost impossible. This would still be the case even if Pell were wearing only an alb, stole and chasuble over his street clothes, as some parish clergy do.

The prosecutions’ case is that having taken a few minutes to lift these tight, heavy garments and open his normal clothes underneath, the Archbishop, with very limited movement and one free hand, chased the two boys around the sacristy, unnoticed by the large number of people moving between that room and the sanctuary, forcing each of the boys to give him oral sex.