Cardinal George Pell Dies: George Pell AC was an Australian Catholic Church cardinal born on June 8, 1941, and died on January 10, 2023. Between 2014 and 2019, he was the first prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. From 2013 to 2018, he was also a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers.
He was made a priest in 1966 and a bishop in 1987. In 2003, he became a cardinal. Pell was the eighth Archbishop of Sydney from 2001 to 2014, the seventh Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001, and an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne (1987–1996).
He also wrote books, wrote a newspaper column, and spoke publicly. From 1996 on, Pell kept a high profile in the public eye on many issues, but he stayed faithful to Catholic doctrine.
Cardinal George Pell Dies at Age 81!
Cardinal George Pell has died at age 81. His conviction on child abuse charges shocked the Catholic Church before it was overturned. The former Vatican treasurer is the essential Catholic priest in Australia and the most crucial Church leader who has ever been jailed for similar crimes.
Church officials say he died of heart problems after a hip surgery. Before he became one of the Pope’s top assistants, Cardinal Pell was the Archbishop of both Melbourne and Sydney. He was called to Rome in 2014 to clean up the Vatican’s finances.
He was often called the third-highest official in the Church. But in 2017, the cleric quit his job and returned to Australia to face charges of having sex with children. In 2018, a jury found that, when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s, he had abused two boys.
Cardinal Pell always said he was innocent, but he was jailed for 13 months before the High Court of Australia overturned the verdict in 2020. But a civil case is still going on. It was started by the father of a choirboy who prosecutors said Cardinal Pell abused.
On the other hand, a significant investigation found that he knew about priests sexually abusing children in Australia as early as the 1970s but did nothing about it. The Child Abuse Royal Commission met for several years and talked to thousands of people.
After Cardinal Pell was found not guilty, the commission’s findings about him were made public. Cardinal Pell denied the claim, saying there was “no evidence” to back it up. Cardinal Pell was a “paramount and influential Church leader,” said Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that many people would be “shocked” by his death. Tony Abbott, a former Catholic Prime Minister, called the cleric a “saint for our times” and “an inspiration for the ages.” He also called the charges he faced “a modern form of crucifixion.“
But Steve Dimopoulos, a government minister in Victoria, the state where Cardinal Pell lives, was one of the people who said they had mixed feelings. “Today would be a tough day for the cardinal’s family and loved ones, but it would also be a tough day for survivors, victims, and families of child sexual abuse, and my thoughts are with them,” he said.
Accused Pedophile Cardinal George Pell Dies At Age 81 – https://t.co/RLe90QQohW pic.twitter.com/V2vowmFnLZ
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) January 10, 2023
Even the cardinal said he was a controversial figure, both in Australia and around the world. He became well-known in the Church because he strongly supported traditional Catholic values. He often had conservative ideas and pushed for priests to be celibate.
Cardinal Pell told the BBC in 2020 that there was “no doubt” that his “direct” style and traditional way of looking at things like abortion had turned some people against him. “A lot of people find it annoying that I defend Christian teachings,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Sunday program.
Emma is a Master of Science candidate at the California Institute of Technology. Since approximately four years ago, she has been a freelance writer, producing content for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and the internet