CANBERRA, Australia – Cardinal George Pell. Who before his conviction was the most senior Catholic cleric convicted of child sex abuse. Has died in Rome at the age of 81.
Vatican news agency EWTN reported. That he died on Tuesday of complications from hip replacement surgery.
Pell, an Australian, was the Vatican’s third-highest Catholic. After before serving as Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney.
Pope Francis brought Pell to the Vatican in February 2014 to reform. Its finances as the first prefect of the created Secretariat for the Economy.
But Pele returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex allegations.
A county court jury in the state of Victoria found him guilty. Molesting two 13-year-old singers at St Patrick’s Cathedral. The late 1990s, shortly after he became Archbishop of Melbourne.
Pele spent more than a year in solitary confinement. Before a full-bench of the High Court upheld his conviction in 2020.
But his career at the Vatican was over.
Pell’s reputation was tarnished by the church’s child sex. Abuse scandal CANBERRA, Australia – Cardinal George Pell. Who was the most senior Catholic priest convicted of child sex abuse before his conviction, has died in Rome at the age of 81.
Vatican news agency EWTN reported. That he died on Tuesday of complications from hip replacement surgery.
Pell, an Australian, was the Vatican’s third-highest Catholic. After before serving as Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney.
Pope Francis brought Pell to the Vatican in February 2014 to reform. Its finances as the first prefect of the created Secretariat for the Economy.
But Pele returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an attempt to clear his name of child sex allegations.
A county court jury in the state of Victoria found him guilty. Molesting two 13-year-old singers at St Patrick’s Cathedral in the late 1990s, shortly. After he became Archbishop of Melbourne.
Pele spent more than a year in solitary confinement before a full-bench of the High Court upheld his conviction in 2020.
But his career at the Vatican was over.
Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child. Sexual Abuse found that clergy in the 1970s knew about child molestation and did not do enough to address it.
Pele later said in a statement that he was “surprised” by the commission’s findings.
“These views are not supported by the evidence,” Pell’s statement said.
Pele was born on June 8, 1941, the eldest of three children of a heavyweight champion boxer and publican, George Pele, an Anglican. His mother Margaret Lillian (née Burke) was from an Irish Catholic family.
Pele grew up in the Victorian regional town of Ballarat. At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, he was a talented Australian rules footballer.
He was Archbishop of Melbourne then Sydney before moving to the Vatican. He was a polarizing figure in the Australian church.
While in Melbourne, he set up the Melbourne Response. A world-first protocol for investigating allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and compensating victims.
But, many abuse victims criticized the system and compensation payments.
