We don’t often think about our fellow Catholics in Australia but an Archbishop there deserves our prayers and thanks for building up the kingdom of God, particularly in his native land.

A wonderful article by George Wiegel, who is a personal friend of Cardinal George Pell, describes what the Cardinal had to face as a prelate and what he has accomplished. To put it bluntly, he says that Cardinal Pell is the man who saved Catholicism in Australia.

To wit: “When his seminary faculty threatened to resign en masse because he insisted that the seminarians attend daily Mass, Pell called their bluff, accepted their resignations, filled the seminary with new faculty — and never looked back.”

He reformed religious education, brought in new orders of religious women, began the John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family, helped create Vox Clara as a check on English-language liturgical translations and, incredibly, brought World Youth day to Australia.

As Mr. Weigel says: “Australia and the entire world Church owe George Pell a large debt of gratitude.”