Cardinal George Pell, acquitted of child sex abuse, dies at 81

Former top Vatican official dies in Rome following hip replacement surgery

Australian Cardinal George Pell escorted from the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne in 2019 (AFP/Getty)

Cardinal George Pell, a former top Vatican official acquitted of sexual abuse allegations after serving time in jail, has died in Rome at the age of 81.

Pell died in hospital as a result of heart complications following hip replacement surgery, said Archbishop Peter Comensoli.

Once the third-highest ranked Catholic in the Vatican, Pell returned to his native Australia in 2019 in a bid to clear his name over charges of child sex abuse.

In a 2020 ruling, an Australian appeals court quashed a conviction that he sexually assaulted two choir boys in the Nineties, allowing him to walk free after 13 months in prison.

He had been found guilty of abusing the minors at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, shortly after he became the city’s archbishop, leading to a global scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

On the day of his acquittal, Pope Francis offered a morning mass for all those suffering from “unjust sentences” and compared them to the persecution of Jesus.

The Pope said on Wednesday he was saddened by the news of Pell’s sudden death, calling him a “faithful servant who, without vacillating, followed his Lord with perseverance even in the hour of trial”.

During his time in prison, Pell kept a diary that became a triptych, Prison Journal, the proceeds of which went to pay his substantial legal bills.

“Look, it was bad, it wasn’t like a holiday, but I don’t want to exaggerate how difficult that was. But there were many dark moments,” Pell had said of his jail time.

Even after his acquittal, the Cardinal’s reputation remained tarnished by the child sex abuse scandals.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that he knew of priests molesting children in the Seventies but did not take adequate action.

Pell later said in a statement he was “surprised” by the commission’s findings, which he said were “not supported by evidence”.

Pell returned to Rome upon his acquittal in the two child sex abuse cases, but his career at the Vatican was effectively over.

He was already a polarising figure before the child sex abuse scandal. In the two decades that he dominated the Australian Catholic hierarchy, he was scorned for his staunch opposition to same-sex marriage and women’s ordination.

Church sources in Rome said Pell’s body would most likely lie in state in a side chapel in St Peter’s Basilica ahead of requiem mass there while the church in Australia has said Pell will be buried in the crypt at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.

Snap, an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse, in a statement called on the Vatican to show “restraint” in funeral arrangements “unless the Church hierarchy wants to deepen already deep wounds”.