Former Vatican treasurer and Australian cardinal George Pell, who had the dubious distinction of being the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman to have convictions for child s*x abuse reversed, died at the age of 81 on January 10, 2023 at the Salvator Mundi International Hospital in Rome, Italy.
Pell’s confidential secretary confirmed that he passed away on Tuesday night in Rome. His prior positions as archbishop of Melbourne and archbishop of Sydney propelled him to the position of third-highest Catholic in the Vatican.
The new archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, reported that Pell died of cardiac issues after hip surgery. “Cardinal Pell was a very significant and influential Church leader, both in Australia and internationally, deeply committed to Christian discipleship,” he said in a statement on Facebook.
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After 13 months in jail for s*xually abusing two choir boys in the 1990s, Pell’s conviction was overturned by Australia’s highest court in 2020. It meant that Pell, then 78 years old, might finally go free. In a crisis that shook the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, he was the most senior member of the church to be accused of s*xual abuse in the past.
From 2014 until he resigned in 2017 to return to Australia to face the assault accusations, Pell served as the Vatican’s economics minister. Since his release, he’d been based in Rome, where he met with Pope Francis on many occasions. Just last week, he paid his respects at Pope Benedict XVI’s burial.
Pell was already a divisive figure in Australia before the s*xual assault claims surfaced, held in high regard by traditionalist Catholics but reviled by progressives for his opposition to same-s*x marriage, abortion, and women’s ordination.
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Last Lines
Australian cardinal George Pell, a former Vatican treasurer who had the dubious distinction of being the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to have convictions for child s*x abuse overturned, died at the age of 81.
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