Accused Pedophile Cardinal George Pell Dies At Age 81

The Guardian reports:

Cardinal George Pell has died in Vatican City, aged 81. Cardinal Pell, the former Catholic archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, died on Tuesday evening, reportedly following complications from hip surgery.

He was the Vatican’s top finance minister before he left in 2017 to stand trial in Australia for child abuse offences.

Cardinal Pell was, in 2018, convicted of molesting two teenage choirboys in the sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral while he was archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, but always maintained his innocence and his convictions were quashed in a unanimous decision by the high court in 2020.

Read the full article.

Pell last appeared on JMG in June 2022 when he was sued by the father of one of his alleged victims. That case remains pending.

Pell also appeared here in March 2022 when he called for the Vatican to reprimand two bishops for making pro-LGBTQ statements.

His six-year sentence was overturned by Australia’s High Court in 2020 on the grounds that the jury “ought to have entertained a doubt” about his guilt.

Pell’s 2017 arrest was widely followed in the international press, with Australian pop singer and atheist Tim Minchin going viral with a song [below] about the scandal.

Pell wrotes three books about his year in prison and concluded an international tour in support of the third volume in November 2021.

Cardinal George Pell dies aged 81 in Rome https://t.co/tC9HILRmxI

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 10, 2023