Tim Minchin targets 'coward' Cardinal

Song slams priest for failing paedophile victims

Tim Minchin has released a new song, aimed at a leading Cardinal embroiled in a paedophile scandal.

Come Home (Cardinal Pell) is aimed at the most senior figure in the Catholic Church of Australia, and the former flatmate of convicted child abuser Gerald Ridsdale.

George Pell is currently working at the Vatican, but a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse within the Church has demanded his presence in Australia to answer questions about what he knew.

He has been accused of covering up paedophile activity in Ballarat, near Melbourne – charges his representatives have denied.

But Cardinal Pell will not travel to Australia to face the Commission, and has sent a doctor’s note saying he’s too unwell to fly because of conditions linked with high blood pressure.

In releasing his song, Minchin said: 'The whole think stinks to high hell, and many people in Australia are very, very angry…not least of all, the survivors in Ballarat, where abuse was sickeningly rife. The idea that Pell was unaware of the behaviour of Riddle (and others) is laughable to me.'

Come Home (Cardinal Pell) will raise funds for a campaign to send survivors of sexual abuse in Ballarat to Rome where 74-year-old Cardinal Pell will give evidence via video link on February 29.

It has not yet been confirmed whether he will give evidence in a public space, as is normal in commission hearings in Australia. But if he does, campaigners want him to do it in front of victims A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/sendballarattorome">crowdfunding drive</a> to raise $55,000 (£27,000) for the cause has already raised $47,000 (£23,000).

In Come Home (Cardinal Pell), Minchin calls the churchman a 'coward' and says: 'Come home you pompous buffoon, I suggest do it soon. I hear the tolling of the bell, and it has a Pellian knell.' And the comic and composer dares the Cardinal to come to Australia to sue him if he takes issue with the song.

<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/come-home-cardinal-pell-single/id1084284098?ls=1&app=itunes">Click here</a> to buy it, and the video is here:

Published: 16 Feb 2016