Why Christian Sukkar confronted George Pell protesters at cardinal’s funeral

A furious Catholic man has explained why he repeatedly screamed at protesters outside Cardinal George Pell’s funeral and cut off ribbons put on the fence by clergy sexual abuse survivors.

Christian Sukkar fired back at hundreds of LGBTQI activists as they shouted ‘George Pell, go to Hell’ and called the late cardinal a paedophile across the street from St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.

The Sydney construction worker, earlier clashed with other protesters after banners reading ‘Pell burn in Hell’ and ‘infernal resting place’ were held up in Hyde Park facing mourners.

‘Take it down, you’re aggravating a lot of f**king people,’ called across the road.

Mr Sukkar then turned his attention to a protester who confronted him about cutting the ribbons off the feance the night before, and he asked if she had ‘looked in the mirror’ and ‘are you a dyke?’.

‘Dyke’ is a homophobic slur, typically used against lesbians.

‘I do not respond to dykes so please move, you’re a dyke, that’s not hate speech. Go film your own people, you are not welcome here, go take your f**king sign off, get your people to move, they can go f**k themselves,’ he yelled.

Mr Sukkar defended his actions to Daily Mail Australia after the funeral was over, insisting the protesters were the violent aggressors who shouldn’t have come to a funeral.

‘They’re entitled to their views, but they came here violently and we didn’t,’ he said.

‘I can’t believe the police allowed them to come here during the funeral and told us to keep quiet while they yelled “paedophile, paedophile”.

‘They shouldn’t be aggravating people while they’re trying to say mass.’

He claimed he was ‘attacked’ on Wednesday night when he cut off ribbons tied along the cathedral’s fence by survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy, and their supporters.

Officers were called to the cathedral late Wednesday night after mourners approached child abuse activists who had been tying ribbons to the fence.

Footage showed supporters of the cardinal including Mr Sukkar allegedly shouting at the silent protesters.

Police officers were seen breaking up the crowd and talking to people after the clash.

Mr Sukkar said the protesters were hypocrites for claiming the church persecuted them while screaming abuse at regular people trying to pay respect to the dead.

‘Don’t act like victims if you’re going to do that,’ he said.

‘Thank God everyone got home in peace.’ 

Mr Sukkar is a married father of two young children and lives in western Sydney with his family, where he is said to be a well-known member of the local Lebanese community.

He is heavily tattooed with religious iconography and Latin phrases, as well as tributes to his family.

The Maronite Christian is outspoken about his faith on social media, and expressed strong feelings towards gay people during the same-sex marriage debate.

In a video shared in November 2019 showed the inside of a primary school classroom and vented his outrage that students made posters in support of transgender people and gay marriage.

A longer post explained his position on the issue, arguing he had ‘an unequivocal, God-given right to freely live out our morals and values without the fear of persecution’. 

‘We cannot nullify the sanctity of marriage, between one man and one woman, and the way it unites wholesomely to protect the fabric of society and create a natural environment for our children and their future,’ he wrote.

‘Together, united in faith, we must reject a culture of indifferent silence and exercise our obligation to speak out in the face of intolerance.’

Days later he blamed the issue for former prime minister Tony Abbott being headbutted by an anarchist DJ at a public event in Tasmania.

‘Today Tony Abbott got headbutted, why is everyone surprised that’s what scummy Aussie dogs who vote yes do. When a gay doesn’t get his way move out of his way lol,’ he wrote.

‘Imagine if the tables where turned they would have blamed the teachings of the church and probably say it’s linked to Isis lol.’

Mr Sukkar then chimed in after threats were made against pink-haired ABC panelist Deanne Carson after she said parents should ask their babies’ consent before changing their nappies.

‘Anyone who dyes their hair pink needs to be in a mental institution. This woman needs the electric chair,’ he wrote.

Cardinal Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, was laid to rest on Thursday at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney after his death at 81 from hip replacement surgery complications. 

LGBTQI activists gathered over the road in Hyde Park before marching to the edge of the street carrying rainbow flags and banners.

They were allowed to stand in the middle of the road chanting ‘George Pell, go to hell’ for about five minutes, just a few metres from more than a thousand mourners outside the cathedral.

Some mourners shouted abuse at the protesters and confronted police, who stood between the two groups, demanding they be ordered to move.

The demonstrators were allowed to briefly protest between the park and the cathedral in a deal with police, and eventually marched down College Street.

Cardinal Pell’s handling of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and brothers, homosexuality, and abortion angered many over the course of his life and prompted the protests.

He served 406 days of a six-year sentence over child sexual abuse allegations but always maintained his innocence. The federal court upheld the verdict but the High Court overturned his conviction in 2020.

Another protester was roughly frogmarched away from the funeral after loudly blowing a whistle for several minutes just on the other side of the fence.

Several police tried to talk to the man, who asked ‘what am I doing wrong?’

Carrying a rainbow umbrella and wearing a face mask and a ‘facts not stories’ t-shirt, he walked away from the police whenever they approached him, continuing to blow his whistle along the fence line.

When an angry mourner charged towards him threatened to inflame the situation, police outside the closed area surrounded the protester as he yelled, ‘no, I didn’t do anything’ several times.

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‘What am I doing? I have a right to be here,’ he said.

Four officers then surrounded the man, pushing him away from the cathedral and vigorously grabbing his umbrella as they marched him towards a waiting paddy wagon. 

NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia the man was ‘moved on’ from the protest but not arrested.

More than a thousand mourners lined up for hours in the hot sun for a chance to get inside the church to watch Cardinal Pell’s funeral, in a queue that stretched around the edge of the cathedral square and up College Street.

The well-wishers included a multitude of ethnicities and nationalities with ages ranging from the elderly to newborn babies, as well as dozens of nuns in white and purple habits, and monks in their cowls.

Catholic men’s group Knights of the Precious Blood had a dozens-strong contingent in their black shirts and entire workplaces attended together in uniform.

Many wore crucifixes or held rosary beads, muttering prayers for Cardinal Pell.

Only a small number made it inside, the rest staying in the square to watch the funeral on large TV screens.

About 10.15am, a few hundred mourners kneeled on the stone paving to chant the rosary for 15 minutes.

As the funeral began, volunteers handed out orders of service for mourners outside to follow, including hymns and prayers they sang and recited in unison.

Some used them in a desperate attempt to shield themselves from the sun, while a small number came prepared with umbrellas.

Every speech, all glowing with praise for Cardinal Pell, was followed by clapping and cheering.

Halinda Gad, a retired opera singer and Polish immigrant, and her friend held signs declaring Cardinal Pell a ‘white martyr’ and compared him to a cardinal jailed for resisting communism.

‘He was persecuted by the mainstream media and aggressive liberalism, not only in Australia, also in the whole globe,’ she said.

‘That’s why we wanted to pay tribute and ask God that he can be seen [in heaven] immediately, because he suffered a lot.

‘He was jailed twice like our Polish cardinal Stefan Wyszynski… because he didn’t want to collaborate [with the Soviets] and all the country followed him.’

Cardinal Wyszynski was imprisoned by the post-World War II communist regime in Poland for supporting the country’s anti-communist resistance.

‘And the same thing happened to Cardinal George Pell, he was also persecuted for truth, justice, Christian ethics and morality, and deeply loved by I think all Australians,’ she said.

Former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott was spotted arriving at the funeral just before it started, as well as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Mr Abbott, a close friend of Cardinal Pell, gave an extraordinary eulogy during the service where he made the case for him to be declared Australia second saint.

‘He’s the greatest Catholic Australia has ever produced and one of our country’s greatest sons,’ he said.

‘He should not have been charged in the absence of corroborating evidence and should never have it should never have been convicted in the absence of a plausible case, as the High Court so resoundingly made plain.’ 

The staunch Catholic mocked protesters outside for their ‘George Pell, go to hell’ slogan as further proof the cardinal should be swiftly canonised.

‘At least they now believe in the afterlife. Saint George Pell’s first miracle,’ he joked during the service.

Mr Abbott said Cardinal Pell should be included in Catholic religious studies and courses and grants be named after him.

‘Just as there are for the other saints,’ he said.

‘If we can direct our prayers to Mother Teresa, Thomas A Becket and Saint Augustine, why not the late cardinal too, who’s been just as pleasing to God, I’m sure, and has the added virtue of being the very best of us.’

Mr Abbott received a huge cheer as he walked behind the hearse carrying Cardinal Pell’s coffin, waving to the crowd and walking to the fence to shake hands with a few mourners.

His appearance briefly interrupted the crowd’s rousing singing of ‘ave Maria’ as hundreds of clergy from around the world slowly marched down College Street in the funeral procession.

Cardinal Pell’s hearse was behind them, followed by non-clergy members of the funeral party. They all proceeded under the cathedral for the burial.

The coffin was laid to rest in the cathedral’s crypt, and screened on the TVs for mourners outside to watch. 

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk