Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Church giant convicted and later acquitted of sexual abuse in Australia, has died in Rome at the age of 81, church officials confirmed Wednesday.
From humble beginnings in the Australian outback, Pell rose through the ranks to become one of Pope Francis’ most trusted advisers at the Vatican.
He was also the highest-profile Catholic to be jailed for child sexual abuse before his conviction was overturned on appeal.
While supporters hailed Pell on Wednesday as a modern-day “saint,” victims of Church abuse said his death tarnished painful memories.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher confirmed Pell’s death in Rome on Wednesday.
Former conservative Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said his friend’s name had been tarnished by “horrific allegations”.
“He was imprisoned on charges that were eventually dismissed by the High Court as a form of modern crucifixion,” Abbott said on Wednesday.
“He strikes me as a saint for our time.”
– ‘Cold’ –
But Donald McLeish, from the Survivors Network of those who were abused by priests, said Pell represents the Church’s neglect of victims of sexual abuse.
“His name is known (by) survivors all over the world,” he told AFP.
“Not only because of the lack of action, but the coldness with which the victims and survivors are treated.
“He’s gone but the fight goes on.”
Pell’s body will be returned to Australia and buried at St Mary’s Cathedral cemetery in Sydney, church officials said.
Australian lawyers, meanwhile, confirmed on Wednesday that they would join the civil case listing Pell as a defendant.
The case was brought by the father of a former altar boy who alleges he was sexually abused by Pell.
“These claims will continue against the church and whatever Pell left behind,” Shine Lawyers said in a statement.
Pell died of heart complications related to hip surgery he underwent at a Rome hospital on Tuesday, according to the Vatican’s official news site.
– 12 months in prison –
Allegations of sexual abuse began to circulate around Pell in 2002, when he was Archbishop of Sydney.
He was accused of abusing teenage boys at a camp in the early 1960s, but an investigation launched by the church ultimately dismissed the claims.
A year later, in 2003, Pope John Paul appointed Pell a powerful cardinal.
Pell continued to rise and in 2014 he was tasked with cracking down on church corruption as head of the Economic Secretariat.
He was widely seen at the time as Pope Francis’ right-hand man and the third most powerful figure in the church.
More allegations surfaced at the height of Pell’s tenure in 2016.
He voluntarily returned to Australia to face allegations that he molested two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s.
Pell vehemently denied the allegations to the death.
“What an absolute load of rubbish, what a disgraceful piece of rubbish,” he said in a 2016 police interview.
The first trial ended in a hung jury, but a second trial found Pell guilty.
– Received by the Pope –
In 2019, he was sentenced to six years in prison and registered as a sex offender.
He spent 12 months in Barwon Prison near Melbourne before the High Court of Australia overturned his conviction on appeal – opening the door to a return to Rome in late 2020.
Pell was embraced by the Church despite the scandal and received by the Pope at the Apostolic Palace in October 2020.
He was among those who attended the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in St Peter’s Square last week.
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said Pell’s “great power was widely recognised” and his influence on the Church would “continue to be felt for many years”.
Pell was also condemned for failing to address the problem of sexual abuse in the Australian Catholic Church.
“I agree that we have been slow to deal with the suffering of the victims and handled it imperfectly,” he told the government to abuse children.
A separate government investigation in 2020 concluded that Pell “not only knew about the sexual abuse of children by clergy” but that “he had also considered measures to avoid situations that could give rise to rumors about it”.
Born in the regional town of Ballarat in the state of Victoria, Pell rose higher in the Catholic Church than any other Australian before him.