George Pell on Consciousness and the soul
Pell defended the existence of the immortal soul as fundamental Catholic doctrine, arguing that consciousness points beyond the material.
George Pell affirmed the existence of the soul as a matter of settled Catholic doctrine. Following Aquinas, he held that the human soul is the form of the body — not a ghost in a machine but the principle of life and rational activity that makes a human being what it is. The soul, in this view, is immaterial, immortal, and directly created by God for each individual person.
Pell argued that the existence of consciousness — particularly rational thought, moral awareness, and the capacity for self-reflection — is best explained by the soul rather than by purely material processes. He was sceptical that neuroscience could ever fully account for subjective experience, arguing that the 'hard problem' of consciousness points toward something beyond the physical.
In debates, Pell linked the soul to human dignity: if human beings are merely complex arrangements of matter, then human rights have no ultimate foundation. The soul, he argued, is what makes each person irreplaceable and inviolable — a conviction that underpins the Church's teachings on everything from abortion to euthanasia.
“Every human being has a soul, created directly by God. That is what gives each person infinite dignity and value.”