Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most powerful Catholic who was caught up in child sex abuse scandal, dies aged 81

11 January 2023, 07:09

Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were later overturned, has died in Rome at the age of 81.

His death on Tuesday was due to complications from hip replacement surgery, according to Vatican news agency EWTN.

Mr Pell, an Australian, was once the third-highest ranked Catholic in the Vatican after earlier serving as the Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney.

Pope Francis brought Mr Pell to the Vatican in February 2014 to reform its finances as the first prefect of the newly created Secretariat for the Economy.

But Mr Pell returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex charges.

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A Victoria state County Court jury convicted Mr Pell of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in the latest 1990s shortly after he had become Archbishop of Melbourne.

Mr Pell served more than a year in solitary confinement before the full-bench of the High Court unanimously overturned his convictions in 2020. But his career in the Vatican was effectively over.

Mr Pell's reputation remained tarnished by the church's child sex abuse scandal.

Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that he knew of clergy molesting children in the 1970s and did not take adequate action to address it.

Mr Pell later said in a statement he was "surprised" by the commission's findings.

"These views are not supported by evidence," Mr Pell said.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: "For many people, particularly of the Catholic faith, this will be a difficult day and I express my condolences to all that are mourning today.

"This will come as a shock to many, this was a hip operation and the consequences of it unfortunately have been that Cardinal Pell has lost his life. 

"And I express my condolences to all those who have been mourning today."

Meanwhile, former prime minister Tony Abbott released a statement paying tribute to a “great” George Pell.

"In his own way, by dealing so equably with a monstrous allegation, he strikes me as a saint of our times," Mr Abbott said.

He added: "His prison journals should become a classic: a fine man wrestling with a cruel fate and trying to make sense of the unfairness of suffering.

"He was a very pastoral priest who well understood the human stain and was more than capable of empathising with sinners while counselling against sin."

Mr Pell was born on June 8, 1941, the eldest of three children to a heavyweight champion boxer and publican also named George Pell, an Anglican. His mother, Margaret Lillian, was from an Irish Catholic family.

He grew up in the Victorian regional town of Ballarat.

At 6ft 4ins tall, he was a talented Australian Rules Footballer. He was offered a professional football contract to play for Richmond but opted for a seminary instead.

He was archbishop of Melbourne then Sydney before he headed to the Vatican. He was a polarising figure in the Australian church.

While in Melbourne, he set up the Melbourne Response which was a world-first protocol to investigate complaints of clergy sexual abuse and to compensate victims.

However many abuse victims were critical of the system and of compensation payments.