Pell and Richter certainly make an odd couple. Richter is a Jew, Pell is a Catholic: Richter is loudly leftwing and socially progressive. Pell is a mirthless arch-conservative who once claimed that homosexuality was more dangerous than smoking. An early campaigner for reproductive rights and drug law reform, Richter has built a career around confronting power and challenging authority. Pell is authority incarnate, a high priest in one of the most powerful institutions in the world; one, moreover, that has been implicated in the most grievous of all abuses – the sexual assault of children.