Mourners call Australian Cardinal Pell victim of injustice

By RICK RYCROFT and ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

SYDNEY (AP) — Mourners at the Sydney funeral for Australian Cardinal George Pell have remembered him as a victim of a campaign to punish him regardless of his guilt. Pell was once the most senior Catholic convicted of sex abuse. Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher hailed Pell as an influential church leader and told mourners Pell was demonized even after a court cleared him. Outside the cathedral, a few hundred protesters yelled slogans denouncing Pell. Pell was a staunch conservative who had riled gay rights supporters and was among church leaders blamed for inaction on clergy sex abuse. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Pell “was made a scapegoat for the church itself.”