Key Points:
- Cardinal George Pell has died at the age of 81 in Vatican City.
- Cardinal Pell was convicted of child sexual abuse offences in 2018 while he was the Archbishop of Melbourne.
- His conviction was later overturned on appeal by the High Court in 2020.
This article contains references to child abuse.
Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has died in Vatican City, Rome, aged 81.
The former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney died from heart complications on Tuesday evening following hip surgery, Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli said.
He was the Vatican's top finance minister before he left in 2017 to stand trial in Australia for child abuse offences.
Just before his death, Cardinal Pell was among those who attended Pope Emeritus Benedict's funeral last Thursday.
Cardinal Pell was convicted in 2018 of molesting two teenage choirboys in the sacristy at St Patrick's Cathedral while he was Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
He always maintained his innocence and his convictions were quashed in a unanimous decision by the High Court in 2020.
Cardinal George Pell has died at the age of 81. Source: AAP / Gregorio Borgia
"Let our prayers go out to the God of Jesus Christ, whom Cardinal Pell wholeheartedly believed in and followed, that he may be welcomed into eternal life," the archbishop said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Sexual abuse revelations
Cardinal Pell was the most influential and controversial Australian churchman of his time and the most senior figure to be enmeshed by the sexual abuse revelations that have rocked the Roman Catholic church.
Cardinal Pell, who denied all charges, was convicted by a Victorian County Court jury in 2018 on one count of sexually penetrating a child under 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 in the 1990s while he was Archbishop of Melbourne. He was jailed for six years.
His appeal was dismissed by a two-to-one majority in the Court of Appeal and he applied for special leave to appeal to the nation's highest court.
On 9 April 2020, after more than 400 days behind bars, the High Court granted Cardinal Pell's application and quashed all charges on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Cardinal George Pell was the Vatican's top finance minister before he left in 2017 to stand trial in Australia for child abuse offences. Source: AP / Andy Brownbill
The trial was not a referendum on the Catholic Church or its response to paedophilia in Australia, but about whether he committed the abuse of two 13-year-old choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in 1996.
"And I did not," Cardinal Pell said.
The life of George Pell
Cardinal Pell was born in Ballarat on 8 June 1941, the eldest child of George, a boxing champion, publican and non-practising Anglican and Margaret, a devout Catholic.
He was ordained a priest at St Peter's Basilica in 1966 and returned to his hometown of Ballarat in 1973 to work as a director of the city's Aquinas campus.
He succeeded Sir Frank Little as Melbourne Archbishop in 1996 and then moved to Sydney to be the archbishop there five years later.
At that time, a man claimed Cardinal Pell sexually abused him in 1962 when he was an altar boy. Cardinal Pell denied the charge and in 2003 he became a cardinal in the Vatican.
Cardinal George Pell at the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Rome, in April. Source: Getty / Franco Origlia
The following year, Pope Francis appointed him cardinal prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, which placed him as the third most powerful man in the Vatican.
Shine Lawyers, who are representing the father of an altar boy who alleged he was abused by Cardinal Pell, said the legal claim against the church and the cardinal's estate would continue.
The father is seeking damages, claiming he suffered nervous shock after being informed of the allegations.
'A shock to many', Anthony Albanese says
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said news of Cardinal Pell's death would have “come as a shock to many”, and that he has reached out to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher to convey the government’s condolences.
“I [also] express my condolences to all those who will be mourning today,” he said.
Mr Albanese revealed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was providing assistance for Cardinal Pell to be returned to his home country.
He confirmed a service will be held at Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral “some time in the future”
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said Australia had lost a great son and the church had lost a great leader.
"The Cardinal was a committed defender of Catholic orthodoxy and a staunch advocate for the virtues of western civilisation," Mr Abbott said in a statement on Wednesday.
"As an ecclesiastical and cultural conservative, he attracted praise and blame from all the expected quarters.
"In fact, he was a very pastoral priest who well understood the human stain and was more than capable of empathising with sinners while still counselling against sin."
Mr Abbott said Cardinal Pell's jailing after his conviction, which was dismissed by the High Court, was a "modern form of crucifixion, reputationally at least a kind of living death".
"Like everyone who knew him, I feel a deep sense of loss but am confident that his reputation will grow and grow and that he will become an inspiration for the ages."
'Difficult day for victims of child sexual abuse'
It would be a very difficult day for Cardinal Pell's family and loved ones, Victorian government minister Steve Dimopoulos said.
"But also a very difficult day for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and their families, and my thoughts are with them," Mr Dimopoulos told reporters on Wednesday.
When asked in a BBC interview in May 2021 how he felt about child sexual abuse allegations being remembered when he dies, Cardinal Pell said the legacy he left was a "good thing".
"My only concern is to get the truth out there. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things what people think about me. But I am keen that the church is not judged unfairly," he said.
"I'm a bit old-school, buttoned-up. I think there are worse things than the stoics. I don't think it's always a virtue to wear your heart on your sleeve. But what is most important than words is what you do to help people."
He returned to the Vatican six months after his appeal was successful in September 2020.
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