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Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/CANBERRA: Cardinal George Pell, whose conviction on child abuse charges shocked the Catholic Church, died at the age of 81 in Canberra in Australia.
The former Vatican treasurer was the most senior Church official ever imprisoned for such acts and the highest-ranking Catholic cleric in Australia.
Catholic Cardinal Dies of Cardiac Failure
According to Church officials, Cardinal Pell passed away from cardiac issues following hip surgery. Prior to becoming one of the Pope’s top advisers, he served as the Archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney. He was frequently referred to as the third-ranking official in the Catholic Church until he was called to Rome in 2014 to clean up the Vatican’s finances.
The cleric, however, left his position in 2017 and went back to Australia to stand trial for the alleged child sex abuse. In 2018, a jury concluded that he had assaulted two boys in the 1990s while serving as Melbourne’s archbishop.
Cardinal Pell, who consistently maintained his innocence, was imprisoned for 13 months before the High Court of Australia overturned the judgment in 2020. However, a civil complaint brought by the parent of a choirboy who was allegedly molested by Cardinal Pell is still pending.
While Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised Cardinal Pell as “a very major and influential Church leader,” Peter Comensoli, the archbishop of Melbourne, said his death would come as “a shock to many.”
Tony Abbott, a Catholic former prime minister, called the cleric a “saint for our times” and “an inspiration for the ages,” calling the accusations against him “a new type of crucifixion.” However, Steve Dimopoulos, a government minister in Cardinal Pell’s home state of Victoria, was among many who expressed reservations.
He added that in addition to the cardinal’s family and friends, “today would be a very terrible day for survivors and victims of child sexual abuse and their families, and my sympathies are with them.” He acknowledged it himself, yet the cardinal was a divisive figure both in Australia and abroad.
Cardinal Pell: ‘My views drove the public against me’
He became well-known in the Church for being a firm supporter of traditional Catholic principles, frequently holding conservative opinions, and pushing for priestly celibacy. In an interview with the BBC in 2020, Cardinal Pell stated that there was “no doubt” that his “direct” approach and conservative stance on topics like abortion had turned some members of the public against him.
Many people find it annoying that I support Christian ideas, he admitted to BBC Radio 4’s Sunday show. Regarding his involvement in the Church’s response to accusations of child sex abuse, Cardinal Pell has received criticism in Australia. A historic investigation determined in 2017 that the cleric was aware of child sex abuse by priests in Australia as early as the 1970s but did nothing about it. Cardinal Pell, however, rejected the royal commission’s conclusions, claiming they were “not backed by facts.”
