Cardinal George Pell died on Tuesday at the age of 81 from complications of hip surgery, according to the Vatican News website.
He was in charge of Vatican finances until 2017, when he returned to Australia to face trial in a child sexual abuse case while Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
In 2018, he was sentenced to six years in prison because he had always maintained his innocence. He appealed and was eventually acquitted by the Australian Supreme Court in 2020 after spending 405 days in jail.
“It is with deep sadness that I can confirm that His Eminence Cardinal George Pell passed away in the early hours of the morning in Rome,” Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a statement, quoted by The Guardian.
“This news comes as a great shock to all of us,” the note read.
“Please pray for the rest of Cardinal Pell’s soul, for comfort and comfort to his family and to all who loved him and are mourning him at this time,” the archbishop of Sydney urged.
George Pell recently attended the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Born in 1941 in Ballarat, Australia, Pell was ordained a priest in 1966, became a bishop in 1987 and a cardinal in 2003, after serving as archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Pell also served as Treasurer of the Holy See for five years, between 2014 and 2019.
Source: DN
