Cardinal Pell died in Rome at the age of 81, the Vatican confirmed on Wednesday. He was receiving care at the Salvator Mundi Hospital where he underwent a hip replacement.
George Pell s lowest point in what had been a stellar career as one of the world s most powerful Catholics came locked up in a prison cell for child sex offences, before he was exonerated.
Cardinal George Pell has admitted he was excessively optimistic he would be granted bail after being wrongly convicted of child sex abuse charges.
Australia s highest-ranking Catholic official was convicted in December 2018 of five counts of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys at Melbourne s St Patrick s Cathedral in 1996.
He spent 404 days behind bars before his six-year jail sentence was overturned in a final appeal to the High Court in April 2020.
Pell, who turns 80 next month, has since returned to his life in Rome having left his job as prefect of the Vatican s economy ministry in 2017 to face the charges. Looking back, I was probably excessively optimistic that I d get bail, Pell said during a candid interview from his flat in the Italian city.
Cardinal George Pell has revealed humiliating prison strip searches were the worst part about being in jail before his child sex abuse convictions were quashed.
Australia s highest-ranking Catholic official was wrongly convicted in December 2018 of five counts of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys at Melbourne s St Patrick s Cathedral in 1996.
He spent 405 days behind bars before his six-year jail sentence was overturned in a final appeal to the High Court in April 2020.
Pell, 79, said there were times during his undignified stint behind bars when he thought he would have to wait until the Christian afterlife to be vindicated.
Cardinal George Pell presides over the mass at Barangaroo, Sydney for the opening of World Youth Day on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. He has told a radio interview (pictured) how the humiliation of prison strip searches was the worst part about being in jail