Cardinal George Pell passed away, and his conviction on allegations of child molestation stunned the Catholic Church before it was overturned. Controversial Catholic cleric George Pell dies at 81
The former Vatican treasurer is the most senior church official ever imprisoned for such offences and the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in Australia.
According to Church officials, he passed away from cardiac issues following hip surgery. Prior to becoming one of the Pope’s top advisors, Cardinal Pell served as the Archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney.
He was frequently referred to as the third-ranking official in the Church until he was called to Rome in 2014 to clean up the Vatican’s finances.
The cleric, however, abandoned his position in 2017 and went back to Australia to stand trial for alleged child sex assault.
In 2018, a jury concluded that he had assaulted two boys in the 1990s while serving as Melbourne’s archbishop.
Controversial Catholic cleric George Pell, who consistently insisted on his innocence, was imprisoned for 13 months before the High Court of Australia overturned the judgement in 2020.
However, a civil complaint brought by the parent of a choirboy who was allegedly molested by Cardinal Pell is still pending.
Meanwhile, a significant investigation revealed that he was aware of priests in Australia abusing children as early as the 1970s but did nothing about it.
The Child Abuse Royal Commission ran for many years, interviewing thousands of people, and its findings relating to Cardinal Pell were released after his acquittal. Cardinal Pell denied the allegation, insisting it was “not supported by evidence”.
While Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised Cardinal Pell as “a very significant and influential Church leader,” Peter Comensoli, the archbishop of Melbourne, said his passing would come as a “shock to many.”
Tony Abbott, a Catholic former prime minister, called the cleric a “saint for our times” and “an inspiration for the ages,” calling the accusations against him “a new type of crucifixion.”
However, Steve Dimopoulos, a minister in Cardinal Pell’s native state of Victoria, was one among several who expressed conflicted emotions.
“Today would be a very difficult day for the cardinal’s family and loved ones, but also very difficult for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and their families and my thoughts are with them,” he said.
He acknowledged it himself, yet the cardinal was a controversial figure both in Australia and abroad.
