Cardinal George Pell, heart, probably the most senior Catholic cleric to face intercourse fees, leaves courtroom in Melbourne, Australia, May 2, 2018. Pell, who was probably the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of kid intercourse abuse earlier than his convictions have been later overturned, died on Tuesday in Rome at age 81.

Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP

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Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP

Cardinal George Pell, heart, probably the most senior Catholic cleric to face intercourse fees, leaves courtroom in Melbourne, Australia, May 2, 2018. Pell, who was probably the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of kid intercourse abuse earlier than his convictions have been later overturned, died on Tuesday in Rome at age 81.

Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP

ROME — Cardinal George Pell, who was probably the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of kid intercourse abuse and spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia solely to have his convictions overturned, died Tuesday. He was 81.

Pell died after present process hip surgical procedure at Rome’s Salvator Mundi hospital, mentioned a good friend, Rev. Robert McCulloch, a Rome-base priest. He had been in Rome to attend the funeral final week of Pope Benedict XVI.

Pell, an Australian, was as soon as the third-highest ranked Catholic within the Vatican after earlier serving because the Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney.

Pope Francis introduced Pell to the Vatican in February 2014 to reform its funds as the primary prefect of the newly created Secretariat for the Economy. But Pell returned to his native Australia in 2017 in an try to clear his title of kid intercourse fees.

A Victoria state County Court jury convicted him of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys at St. Patrick’s Cathedral within the newest Nineties shortly after he had turn out to be Archbishop of Melbourne.

Pell served 404 days in solitary confinement earlier than the full-bench of the High Court unanimously overturned his convictions in 2020. But his profession within the Vatican was successfully over.

During his time in jail, Pell saved a journal documenting all the things from his prayers and Scripture readings to his conversations with visiting chaplains and the jail guards. The journal was a triptych, “Prison Journal,” the proceeds of which went to pay his substantial authorized payments.

In the diary, Pell mirrored on the character of struggling, Pope Francis’ papacy and the humiliations of solitary confinement as he battled to clear his title for a criminal offense he insists he by no means dedicated.

Pell and his supporters imagine he was scapegoated for all of the crimes of the Australian Catholic Church’s botched response to clergy sexual abuse. Victims and critics say he epitomized all the things mistaken with how the church has handled the issue.

Australian Cardinal George Pell stands subsequent to the physique of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lied out in state inside St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican on Jan. 3.

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Australian Cardinal George Pell stands subsequent to the physique of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lied out in state inside St. Peter’s Basilica at The Vatican on Jan. 3.

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Even after he was acquitted, Pell’s status remained tarnished by the scandal.

Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse discovered that he knew of clergy molesting kids within the Nineteen Seventies and didn’t take ample motion to deal with it.

Pell later mentioned in a press release he was “surprised” by the fee’s findings. “These views are not supported by evidence,” Pell’s assertion mentioned.

With his somewhat brusque, no-nonsense Australian sensibilities, Pell clashed incessantly with the Vatican’s Italian outdated guard throughout the three years he lived in Rome attempting to get a deal with on the Vatican’s belongings and spending. He was considerably vindicated when Vatican prosecutors put 10 folks, together with his onetime nemesis, on trial in 2021 for a bunch of alleged monetary crimes.

After Pell returned to Rome following his launch from jail, he had a well-publicized personal viewers with Francis.

“He acknowledged what I was trying to do,” Pell mentioned of the pope throughout a 2020 interview at his condo in Rome. “And, you know, I think it’s been sadly vindicated by revelations and developments.”

Pell was born on June 8, 1941, the eldest of three kids to a heavyweight champion boxer and publican additionally named George Pell, an Anglican. His mom Margaret Lillian (nee Burke) was from an Irish Catholic household.

Pell grew up within the Victorian regional city of Ballarat. At 193 centimeters (6 foot, 4 inches) tall, he was a proficient Australian Rules Footballer. He was supplied knowledgeable soccer contract to play for Richmond however opted for a seminary as an alternative.

He was archbishop of Melbourne then Sydney earlier than he headed to the Vatican.

While in Melbourne, he arrange the Melbourne Response which was a world-first protocol to research complaints of clergy sexual abuse and to compensate victims.

However, many abuse victims have been crucial of the system and of compensation funds.