New dates being considered for President’s visit to Australia

The Maltese community in Australia would be glad to know that The Voice has been officially informed that the visit to Australia in 2023 by the President of Malta, HE Dr George Vella, has only been postponed. The President’s Office is working on the new dates for the visit and this time The Voice would be informed accordingly

Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli said Cardinal Pell was “one of the great Church men of Australia, and internationally” and a “forthright defender of the faith” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former PM John Howard expressed condolences to the Catholic community

Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP spoke of Cardinal Pell's vision in bringing World Youth Day to Sydney in 2008 and the positive faith impact it had He said Cardinal Pell was an author of books and a regular newspaper columnist, a lecturer and leader in Catholic education, and a scholar in his own right

He served the broader Church as a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vox Clara Commission, the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Congregation of Bishops

But Melbourne solicitor Viv Waller, who represented Cardinal Pell's surviving accuser, said he would be remembered as “not adopting a very compassionate response to (abuse revelations) but instead being offensive about it and protecting the church”

Shine Lawyers, who represent the father of one of Cardinal Pell's accusers, said the legal claim against the Church and the cardinal's estate would continue

Cardinal George Pell’s funeral will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on the 2 February at 11 am Arrangements have already started for his body to be returned to Sydney from Rome, where he died

The Cardinal will lie in state at the Cathedral from the morning of 1 February But he will not be given a state funeral