In his latest On the Square column , George Weigel praises the cardinal archbishop of Sydney:
Pell, who is more a Melbournian than a Sydneysider (although he has been metropolitan archbishop of both great sees), sometimes makes reference to his great Melbourne predecessor, Daniel Mannix, archbishop of the capital of Victoria for 46 years and a leading figure in Australian public life for decades. Well, if Mannix set the twentieth-century pattern for Catholic prelates Down Under, George Pell will be regarded by historians as the man who set the pattern for the twenty-first century. In doing so, he saved Catholicism in Australia and set it on course toward a vibrant future, evangelically and publicly.