(Transcript from World News Radio)
There's been a mixed reaction to the appointment of the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, to a senior role within the Vatican.
Cardinal Pell's appointment by Pope Francis under a reorganisation of the Vatican's economic and administrative affairs makes him one of the most powerful figures within the church.
Murray Silby has the details.
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The restructure of the Vatican and Holy See's financial hierarchy is of a scale not seen in a quarter of a century and follows a series of scandals at the Vatican bank.
The Vatican has said in a statement that Cardinal George Pell has been asked to start work as soon as possible as head of the Secretariat for the Economy.
The reforms have been welcomed by General secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, Father Brian Lucas.
"This is a significant appointment. For some time now our people around the world have been concerned about the way in which some of Vatican departments have been operating, perhaps in silos and without the level of cooperation and coordination that is required in the modern world so this appointment has a person who is responsible, advised by a council dedicated to the task of making the Vatican administration and financial management more efficient."
Cardinal Pell has said in a statement the church must be open to expert advice and be aware of any opportunity to improve the way it conducts its financial administration.
Father Lucas, of the Australian Bishops Conference, acknowledges there's been concerns within the church of how its finances are handled.
"I think there's been some concern at the different ways in which Vatican departments account for their revenue, the different auditing standards and so forth have lacked the level of accountability and transparency that we ought to have."
A sometimes polarising character within the Catholic Church, Cardinal Pell attracted controversy during a media conference in 2012 called to respond to the Federal Government's announcement of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
During that press conference Cardinal Pell insisted that if a priest heard a confession of child abuse from another priest in the confessional then he could not report that confession to police.
"Reporter: "Cardinal Pell, can you tell us what the protocol is now in the Catholic Church for priests that might confess to another priest of abuse." // Pell: "If, if that is done outside the confessional." Reporter: "No, if it's done inside the confessional?" // Pell: "Well, you know the answer to that as well as I. The seal of...." // Reporter: "I'm asking you to articulate it." // Pell: "The seal of confession is inviolable." // Reporter: "So if a priest confesses to another priest that he is .... " // Pell: "The seal of confession is inviolable."
The group Broken Rites provides assistance to victims of abuse within religious organisations.
Spokesman Wayne Chamley says he hopes Cardinal Pell's appointment to the Vatican position will not hinder the work of the Royal Commission.
"It's an aspect of this appointment that's a bit troubling because I think that Cardinal Pell was probably a person into the future who would need to tell the Commission a lot of what had happened and how he went about certain matters and the question is, is he going to make himself available."
But Francis Sullivan, from the Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, says the new position will not prevent Cardinal Pell appearing before the Commission.
"There won't be any impact because firstly, he doesn't actually leave his post as the Archbishop of Sydney until after the inquiry into the archdiocese's handling of the John Ellis case. That will be happening in March and he's made it abundantly clear to me that he will make himself available to the Royal Commission as it sees fit into the future." // Reporter: "So should it request his appearance and return to Australia he would do that?" // Sullivan: "Yes, that's how I read it, yes."
While Wayne Chamley, from Broken Rites, wants Cardinal Pell in Australia to answer questions from the Royal Commission, he says his departure to the Vatican is likely to speed up reform within the church of its handling of abuse allegations.
"I think it'll be of assistance to that process. I think the people who still hold their faith and belong to the Catholic Church would prefer that some of these controversial figures like Cardinal Pell and some other now retired bishops were entirely out of the way so they're not around to meddle and so when they begin to start some reform processes the new thinking has a clear go."
Cardinal Pell has support in high places, though, for the role he's played in the response by the Catholic Church in Australia to abuse allegations.
Speaking on Fairfax Radio last year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott provided a glowing endorsement of Cardinal Pell.
"He is in my judgement a fine human being and a great churchman. Is he perfect? Has he handled every issue perfectly? Of course not. As I said, all I know is that he has by repute, been the first senior cleric in Australia to take this issue seriously."
In a statement, Cardinal Pell says he's "deeply honoured" to have been appointed to his new role in the Vatican and hopes to use it to make better use of the church's resources to improve its capacity to support the poor and disadvantaged.
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