Catholic liberals in Australia warned that Pope John Paul II's decision to make controversial Sydney Archbishop George Pell a cardinal would alienate large sections of the church.
The 62-year-old archbishop, known for his conservative views on issues such as homosexuality and contraception, was one of 31 new cardinals named Sunday by the Vatican.
Pell has made headlines for refusing communion to gays, for opposing women priests, for saying homosexuality was a bigger health hazard than smoking and that abortion was a worse moral scandal than sexual abuse by priests.
But his right-wing views have endeared him to the 83-year-old pontiff, and his appointment hardly came as a surprise.
Pell shrugged off the controversy and said his appointment recognised the contribution of the Catholic community to Australian life.
"The Catholic church is not a small sect," Pell said. "I am a loyal son of the second Vatican council. I stand with the Pope. I don't run around making up teachings."
Even his colleagues, however, admitted it would disappoint many Australian Catholics.
"It further shows the church to be representing many elements that I think are not doing the church very much good at the moment," Canberra Bishop Pat Power told national radio.
Power listed the dignity of the human person, dialogue within the church and reading the signs of the times as things which had not been "particularly clearly enunciated by Pell".
"I think for that reason, many people will be disappointed the church is going further in that direction," Power said.
Since his appointment as Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, Pell has courted controversy again and again. He has been accused of driving gays and lesbians from the church.
But his worst moment came last year, when he temporarily stood aside, after he was accused and then cleared of abusing an altar boy at a camp in 1961.
Pell has refused to administer communion to members of the gay Catholics collective Rainbow Sash. Its spokesman Michael Kelly said Pell's appointment was the result of his skill in playing politics at the Vatican.
"Pell is a champion of all that sort of mentality that is about doctrinal checklists and excluding people," Kelly said. "I think it is a very unfortunate day for the church. It is a very unfortunate appointment.
"A lot of people are going to become even more cynical about Rome and about the way the church is run. It is going to promote a very right-wing version of orthodoxy."
Pell has been seen for several years as a rising star within the church. When the archbishopric of Sydney fell vacant in 2001, Pope John Paul II reportedly examined a list of prospects, before declaring: "I want Pell."
Born in Ballarat, Victoria, Pell signed a professional contract to play Australian Rules football in 1959, but was ordained a priest in 1966 at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
He later worked in Ballarat with Gerald Ridsdale, one of Australia's most notorious paedophile priests, who was eventually jailed for 18 years. Pell said he had been unaware of Ridsdale's activities.
From 1990-2000 Pell was a member of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Office of the Inquisition. He was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 and then Archbishop of Sydney in 2001, triggering protests by pro-abortion and gay rights activists.
He was then accused of covering up child sex abuse by priests, before being accused of sexual abuse himself, and then cleared.
On Monday, Pell expressed compassion for every group in the church and in society.
"My compassion, my sympathy is extended to every group within the Catholic community and in the Australian community," he said.