Rome - The Catholic Church in Australia reacted with sadness at the news of the passing away of Cardinal George Pell, prefect emeritus of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, on Tuesday at the age of 81.

He was called to eternal rest after suffering a cardiac arrest following hip surgery in Rome.

He had attended the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI just days earlier.

Cardinal Pell served for many years as archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney before Pope Francis appointed him to lead the Vatican’s economy department in 2014.

“This news comes as a great shock to all of us,” Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said in a first reaction on Facebook.

“Please pray for the repose of the soul of Cardinal Pell, for comfort and consolation for his family and for all of those who loved him and are grieving him at this time.”

“Cardinal Pell’s impact on the life of the Church in Australia and around the world will continue to be felt for many years.” said archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne reacted “with great sadness” to the news, writing on Twitter: “May eternal light now be his, who so steadfastly believed in the God of Jesus Christ.”

“Larger than life, Cardinal Pell was a highly intelligent and well-read man who took a genuine interest in everyone around him,” Bishop Richard Umbers, an auxiliary bishop in Sydney, said on Twitter.

“A pioneer for much good in Sydney, Australia, and the entire church. Please join me in praying for the repose of his soul. Requiescat in pace.”

Cardinal George Pell
George Pell was born on June 8, 1941, in Ballarat, a town in Victoria, to an English-born Anglican father and a devout Catholic mother of Irish descent.

He was ordained a priest at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, in 1966. He studied both at the Pontifical University Urbaniana and the University of Oxford.

He became the auxiliary bishop of Melbourne in 1987, and was named archbishop of Melbourne nine years later.

In 2001 he was appointed archbishop of Sydney and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in October 2003, while he was archbishop of Sydney.

Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Pell a member of his Council of Cardinal. A year later in 2014, he was appointed to take charge of the newly created Secretariat for the Economy and to lead efforts at reforming Vatican financial affairs.

In 2017, Carinal Pell left Rome for Australia to defend his innocence against abuse charges. After serving a painful 404 days in prison he was ultimately acquitted in 2020. He returned to live in Rome on Sept. 30, 2020, his first visit back to the city since his trial and imprisonment.

Cardinal Pell’s prison journal, written while he was in solitary confinement, is being published in three volumes. He has said he could not offer Holy Mass in jail because he was not allowed access to wine for use in the consecration.

In 2021, Cardinal Pell turned 80 years old, losing his eligibility to vote in a future papal conclave.

On May 13, 2021, Cardinal Pell led a eucharistic procession at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, in Rome, where he explained that during his 13 months in jail, he was “unable to celebrate Mass and attend Mass.”

“I listened to many Protestant preachers, and I became even more aware of the centrality of the liturgical celebration. It’s a making present of Christ’s sacrifice. It’s an explicit act of adoration. It involves the whole of our persons. It needs faith to be practiced,” he said.

Referring to Cardinal Pell’s time in prison for alleged abuse, Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said : “His incarceration on charges that the High Court ultimately scathingly dismissed was a modern form of crucifixion; reputationally at least a kind of living death.”

“In his own way, by dealing so equably with a monstrous allegation, he strikes me as a saint for our times.”

-Sources