Tim Minchin has no regrets about Come Home Cardinal Pell, the song in which he urged Australia's highest-ranking Catholic clergyman to catch a plane from Rome to face the Royal Commission in person.
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But he does admit to feeling a little "sad" for the man he labelled "scum", a "pompous buffoon" and a "goddamn coward".
"I feel sorry for everyone in this sorry affair," says Minchin, the 40-year-old musician and comedian from Perth who now lives in LA but is in Australia for the Melbourne opening of his hit musical Matilda this week.
"I wish the f---er had come back, though, because to not come back shows a massive disconnect with what the survivors need. They weren't believed, and they need not just to be believed but publicly believed by the institution.
“And he's the big guy. It's not my fault that he's the big guy."
Minchin's song has been viewed more than 1.3 million times on his YouTube channel since its debut on The Project on February 16.
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It topped the iTunes chart in Australia, with all proceeds going to cover the expenses of the Ballarat abuse survivors who flew to Rome to witness Pell's testimony (Minchin's $25,000 contribution comes on top of the $203,000 raised via a gofundme page set up by Meshel Laurie and Gorgi Coghlan, who hosted The Project on the night the song was dropped).
"It's the first time I've ever had a song on the radio or in the charts in all my years and I don't get any of the f---ing money," Minchin says, in mock disgust.
"I'm going to have to go down to one of those survivor centres and get a sandwich or something."
Although he feels their efforts "contributed to a version of healing", he knows they were nothing compared to what it would have meant had Pell come home and acknowledged in person the church's failings.
"But I don't think he's got it in him," he says. "This is not a guy inclined towards a humble offering of redemption."
The Minchin of Matilda – adapted from Roald Dahl's children's book about a brilliant but bullied young girl – might seem a long way from the Pell-baiting satirist but, he insists, they're not so far apart.
"Matilda says, 'Leave her alone you big fat bully', and [the teacher] Miss Honey says, 'We can't go to the police – it's her word against ours; they'll never believe us'," he says.
"Does this ring a bell, with a Pellian knell? It's the same."
Matilda is at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, for a limited season. Details: marrinergroup.com.au
