This morning, Cardinal George Pell passed away in Rome.
Cardinal Pell first attained the position of archbishop at the cathedral. He is also accused of having molested two choirboys there in the 1990s. He was the most influential Catholic in Australia at the time and was also despised by many.
The response to Pell’s passing has been ambivalent. Peter Dutton, the leader of the opposition, urged the Victorian Labor Party to consider their “political persecution” of him. John Rule, a lawyer for Maurice Blackburn who has defended victims of clergy abuse, said Pell would be remembered for “completely abandoning survivors of abuse and their families.”
Australia had “lost a great son,” according to former prime minister Tony Abbott, who described Pell’s imprisonment as “a modern form of crucifixion; reputationally at least, a kind of living death.”
Phil Nagle, an abuse survivor, predicted that Pell’s passing wouldn’t bring his group to tears.
George Pell’s cause of death
He died as a result of complications following hip surgery.
George Pell’s family
George Arthur and Margaret Lillian Pell Burke welcomed Pell into the world on June 8, 1941 in Ballarat, Victoria. His father was a non-practicing Anglican from Leicestershire, England, who had won the heavyweight boxing championship. His mother was an orthodox Irish Catholic.
He had a sister named Margatet Pell.
George Pell’s net worth
He had an estimated $1 million net worth.
George Pell’s funeral
Before moving to the Vatican, Pell served as archbishop of Sydney for 13 years. He will be buried there.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not said whether he will attend the burial; the date has not yet been set.
