VATICAN (CNS): George Cardinal Pell of Australia died in Rome on January 10 at the age of 81 after suffering a heart attack following hip replacement surgery. The cardinal’s came as a shock because only five days earlier he had concelebrated the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI and “seemed in good health,” said Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.
Pope Francis called the cardinal a faithful servant of God and of the Catholic Church, who steadfastly followed the Lord even “in the hour of trial” when he was jailed for sexual abuse before his conviction was overturned by Australia’s highest court.
Cardinal Re presided over Cardinal Pell’s funeral on January 14 in St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis presiding over the final rite of commendation, as he usually does for cardinals who die in Rome.
Cardinal Re described the Australian as often being “a strong-willed and decisive protagonist” with “a strong temperament that, at times, could appear harsh.”
“The last years of his life were marked by an unjust and painful condemnation,” Cardinal Re said, referring to Cardinal Pell’s conviction on charges of sexual abuse and his 404 days in jail before the Australian High Court overturned the conviction concluding there was “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”
Pope Francis called the cardinal a faithful servant of God and of the Catholic Church, who steadfastly followed the Lord even ‘in the hour of trial’ when he was jailed for sexual abuse before his conviction was overturned by Australia’s highest court
Cardinal Re told mourners at the funeral that the court “exonerated him with a sentence of full innocence, and he was finally able to leave prison.”
A few days earlier, in offering his condolences to Cardinal Pell’s brother and family members, Pope Francis said the he would be remembered for “his consistent and committed witness, his dedication to the Gospel and the church, and particularly his diligent cooperation with the Holy See in its recent economic reform, for which he laid the foundations with determination and wisdom.”
In an interview with Italy’s Mediaset, broadcast on 18 December 2022, the pope was asked what part of his job he would have preferred not having had to deal with, and he responded, the Vatican’s financial chaos and scandals.
The need for a thorough clean up “was clearly seen by Cardinal Pell, who is the one who started” making progress, the pope said, but then he was required to return to Australia “because of this calumny” of being accused of sexual abuse.
When he was archbishop of Melbourne, Cardinal Pell revolutionised the way sex abuse cases were handled. As early as 1996, when the global Church—both local bishops and the Vatican—were slow in responding to the crisis, he set up a standard for how to report cases of clergy sexual abuse by establishing the Melbourne Response in consultation with law enforcement and legal authorities in the state of Victoria
When he was archbishop of Melbourne, Cardinal Pell revolutionised the way sex abuse cases were handled. As early as 1996, when the global Church—both local bishops and the Vatican—were slow in responding to the crisis, he set up a standard for how to report cases of clergy sexual abuse by establishing the Melbourne Response in consultation with law enforcement and legal authorities in the state of Victoria.
While commonplace today, setting up such a transparent and public protocol in the mid-1990s, was considered revolutionary.
“I think in five years in Melbourne, 300 [cases] did something of that order, which is a lot. And the people were very surprised by the number, I was too, and they were scandalised, but people felt they could come forward in confidence. They felt there was a just procedure,” Cardinal Pell told TVP.
Born on 8 June 1941, in Ballarat, Australia, entered the seminary, studying first in Australia and then at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He was ordained in 1966 at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope St. John Paul II appointed him an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne in 1987, archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, archbishop of Sydney in 2001 and gave him the cardinal’s red hat in 2003.
Pope Francis named Cardinal Pell to his international Council of Cardinals to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia and, in 2014, Pope Francis named him prefect of the new Council for the Economy.
Cardinal Pell will be buried in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on February 2, according to his secretary, Father Joseph Hamilton.
He death leaves the College of Cardinals with 223 members, 125 of whom are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave.
