Then he was discovered responsible of abuse, after greater than a yr in jail a courtroom overturned the decision. Pell has died on the age of 81.
Australian Cardinal George Pell has died in Rome on the age of 81. Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher introduced. He wrote on Facebook that the news of Pell’s dying “comes with a great shock to all of us.” He requested for prayers for the deceased. According to media studies citing Pell’s non-public secretary, the cardinal died within the Italian capital after a routine operation.
As finance chief below Pope Francis, Pell was for years the quantity three within the Vatican and the highest-ranking minister within the historical past of the Catholic Church to be convicted of kid molestation.
First convicted, then acquitted
In December 2018, the previous Curia cardinal was sentenced by a Melbourne courtroom to 6 years in jail for allegedly molesting two choirboys after a mass within the vestry of Melbourne Cathedral in 1996. Due to inadequate proof – there was just one prosecution witness and an unlikely constellation of crimes – the decision was overturned.
After round 13 months in jail, Pell was in a position to go away jail once more. At the time he mentioned: “I have always maintained my innocence while suffering great wrongs. That was overturned today by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. I have no grudge against my accuser, I do not want my acquittal to mean the injuries and adds to the bitterness felt by so many; there is enough hurt and bitterness.”
In the report of the Royal Commission in Australia from May 2020, Pell doesn’t get off utterly unscathed: As episcopal vicar in Ballarat within the early Seventies, he’s mentioned to have identified, like others, {that a} infamous abuser was repeatedly transferred as an alternative of being reported.
Pell attended Benedict XVI’s funeral
Despite allegations of abuse in opposition to him a few years earlier than the trial, Pell made a profession for himself within the Church. In 2014, he was appointed by Pope Francis as Prefect of the Economic Secretariat to scrub up the Vatican’s funds. Thus Pell, who was counted among the many conservatives within the Vatican, got here into battle with outdated buildings and habits of different accountable individuals.
Just final week, Pell sat very near the coffin of the late Pope Benedict XVI. After the ceremony, the incumbent Pope referred to as him “a great man” – it was his formal rehabilitation.
Since the decision was overturned, Pell has spent half the yr in Rome and the opposite half in Australia. After his dying, 125 of the 223 cardinals of the common church are nonetheless below 80 years outdated and thus entitled to vote within the papal election.
