Page:Pell v The Queen.pdf/26

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Kiefel CJ
Bell J
Gageler J
Keane J
Nettle J
Gordon J
Edelman J

20.

by the applicant. The occasion stuck in his memory because it was the first time that the applicant celebrated Sunday solemn Mass at the Cathedral, and his mother had made a rare visit to the Cathedral that day so that they could lunch together afterwards.

At the conclusion of the Mass, McGlone walked with his mother to the west door, where the applicant was "doing the meet and greet". McGlone introduced his mother to the applicant, who said, "[y]ou must be very proud of your son". Mrs McGlone responded, "I don't know about that". McGlone recalled the occasion as taking place between October and December 1996. He believed that it was the first time that the applicant had celebrated Sunday solemn Mass in the Cathedral, although he allowed that it might not have been. It was McGlone's impression that the applicant was drawing a deliberate contrast between his administration and that of his predecessor, Archbishop Little, by adopting the practice of greeting congregants after Mass.

Jeffrey Connor was an altar server in 1996. He ceased these duties in November 1997. Connor's personal diary entries recorded that he served at the solemn Masses on 15 and 22 December 1996. He did not have a specific recall of the services on those dates but said it was the applicant's "invariable" practice to greet congregants on the steps of the Cathedral after Mass. He recalled that the applicant would take off his mitre and hand it to one altar server and hand his crosier to the other. The altar servers would take them and join the procession at its rear. Connor had served on occasions as the applicant's mitre or crosier bearer. He said the applicant would return to the sacristy more than ten minutes after the procession.

Peter Finnigan, the Cathedral choir marshal in 1996, recalled both Sunday solemn Masses celebrated by the applicant in December of that year. In his role as choir marshal, he was near the back of the procession as it left the Cathedral. Once it rounded the side of the Cathedral he moved up until he reached the front of it by the time the choristers were entering the toilet corridor. Finnigan was asked what the applicant was doing as the procession moved along. It was his understanding that the applicant would usually stand on the steps of the west door and greet parishioners for "something like" ten minutes.

A number of men who were choirboys in 1996 gave evidence of the conduct of external processions following Sunday solemn Mass. Two of them recalled that on occasions the applicant processed back to the Cathedral with the choir. Anthony