Tim Minchin really thinks that Cardinal George Pell should fly back to Australia and give evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
So much so, that he’s written a tender piano ballad in honour of the high-ranking Catholic official, who is apparently too “poorly” to leave Rome and testify about what he knew (or didn’t know) about sexual abuse committed by priests in the Ballarat diocese throughout the 1970s and 80s.
Like a heartbroken romantic pining over a lost lover, Minchin croons for “Georgie” to come back to us: “It’s a lovely day in Ballarat / I’m kicking back, thinking of you / I hear that you’ve been poorly / I am sorry that you’re feeling blue / I know what it’s like when you feel a little shitty / you just wanna curl up and have an itty bitty doona day / but a lot of people here really miss ya Georgie / we really think you should get on a plane…”
But the depth of the comic’s disgust at Pell’s actions soon becomes apparent, as he trashes the Cardinal as “scum” a “coward” and a “pompous buffoon” (whilst somehow managing to maintain the same polite eloquence and Tim Minchinny wit, delivered via glorious song).
Eat your heart out Adele.
All proceeds from the sale of Minchin’s sacrelicious new single will go towards a gofundme.com campaign to help abuse survivors from Ballarat travel to Rome and observe Pell giving video evidence to the Commission on February 29th.
Watch Minchin performing the song below, or else download it here.
