In sentencing Cardinal George Pell, Chief Judge Peter Kidd has made clear that he is not passing sentence on the church — he is sentencing Cardinal Pell, and Cardinal Pell alone.

But the conviction of Australia's most prominent Catholic for sexual offences against minors has been met with an outpouring of emotion and public comment.

The conviction is socially vast in impact. And given how human beings are by nature, it is being personalised, parsed and rapidly reclassified.

For the many who have been profoundly harmed through clergy sexual abuse, it seems that they have been heard and believed. For Catholic progressives, a leader of the conservative faction has been pulled down. For all those Catholics made refugees in their own church because they are divorced and remarried, LGBTQI, "living in sin" or doctrinally unorthodox, their nemesis is put down under their feet. For those who dislike the Catholic Church and all it stands for, the public leader of all they detest has been brought low.

But what about ordinary Catholics?

Yet for many ordinary people, and ordinary Catholics in particular, the news is gobsmacking and hard to process. It is a calamity for them. Some are simply shattered that he was found guilty. Some just don't believe it. And they are saying it clearly on social media.

An appeal has been lodged, and George Pell remains a Cardinal, though the Vatican has confirmed he is no longer Prefect for the Economy. His five-year term as prefect ended on February 24.

He is also no longer one of the group of nine Cardinals advising the Pope. The Vatican confirmed again that he may not engage in public ministry.

Cardinal Pell's former school in Ballarat says it will remove him from honour rolls and from a building named for him.

Though the presidents of the International Bishops Conferences met in Rome last week with Pope Francis to address the crisis of sexual abuse, it seems the failures of the hierarchy in terms of child protection are a significant impetus for a reformation effect within the Catholic Church itself.

And I write "reformation" in the full knowledge that it is a highly loaded word, because effective change will require significant reform.

Worshippers attend a Catholic church service. ( ABC News: Alex Blucher )

Canon law in the spotlight

The Australian state had to step in to investigate religious institutions via the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse. The commission subsequently made recommendations on how to reform religious institutions, the Catholic Church being one focus.

Australian law can do many things, but it does not regulate the inner workings of the international Catholic Church. Rather, this is the job of Catholic canon law.

To reform the international Catholic Church, canon law needs reforming as well. The recent summit in the Vatican between the Pope and the presidents of episcopal conferences did indeed consider this more generally. During that recent Vatican summit, clericalism was identified as a key problem: a priest-caste protecting itself.

But the American Cardinal Blase Cupich also raised the idea of a "metropolitan model" for accountability on sexual abuse which would involve laypeople. By "metropolitan" he meant a gathering of dioceses with one central ecclesiastical court.

In Australia, we have marriage tribunals already operating with lay and clerical judges that deal with matters of marriage and nullity. These church courts operate under (and not above) our secular legal system, though not all dioceses can afford to run them.

A metropolitan model (such as dioceses in NSW or QLD) could share expenditure. The key problem remains that these courts currently remain under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Bishop. George Pell was the Metropolitan of NSW. He was in charge. So who would investigate the Metropolitan? How would an investigator step outside the priest-caste given the clerical system is currently closed.

Going further than Cardinal Cupich, this would require a significant church reform of canon law not unlike the democratic separation of powers. Judges (including lay judges) would need to have the power to investigate bishop. It's a radical proposal for Catholics, but it is being advanced by significant Catholic leaders like Rik Torfs, former rector of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

'We left the hierarchy behind'

Despite many people registering their shock on the conviction of Cardinal Pell, some of the most striking talkback reaction has been from Catholics shrugging and saying "well, we left the hierarchy behind long ago".

There is a detachment increasingly being expressed by believers. They are detaching themselves from the leadership of ministerial priesthood.

Frankly, Cardinal Cupich's Metropolitan model proposal might already be too late, because it requires lay confidence in the hierarchy.

Factually, the Australian Catholic Church is less and less the historic 19th century church led by nuns, priests and bishops, and more and more something new.

Fewer priests are being ordained. Fewer monks and nuns professed. More married deacons are appearing. The laity are increasingly becoming leaders in Australia's vast Catholic school system. The same in Catholic hospitals. The same in Catholic charities. Same in Catholic community services.

More impetus for reform

Recommendation 16.7 from the royal commission asked the Australian Catholic Bishop's Conference to review the governance and management of all these structures — and with particular reference to lay men and women.

The conviction of George Pell, appeal notwithstanding, will provide further impetus for these suggested reforms. Though not complete in all Australian dioceses yet, parish priests are increasingly no longer in charge of parish schools.

Until the royal commission, parish priests pretty much had direct access to primary schools, and were direct employers. Soon that will be a thing of the past.

Lay leadership of the church school system is increasingly separate from the parishes. Child protection measures in the school system are increasingly robust, and robust enough at this point in history to retain the confidence of the majority of parents.

But the division between parish church and parish schools and institutions is gradually being locked in legally. This is a direct consequence of recommendation 16.6 from the royal commission. And it is a profound change.

Editor's note: On Tuesday April 7, 2020, the High Court in a unanimous decision upheld Cardinal Pell's appeal and quashed his convictions on all five charges.