Cardinal George Pell has died at the age of 81 in Rome. Australian, prefect emeritus of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, has not overcome complications related to hip surgery.
Former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, in 2017 he had come under indictment for "serious sexual crimes" against minors, including rape among the charges , which were allegedly committed when, in the 1970s, Pell was parish priest in Ballarat, his hometown.
On 11 December 2018 he was found guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old altar boys by a jury in the State of Victoria County Court and on 13 March 2019 sentenced to 6 years in prison.
The appeal was rejected , the sentence confirmed. Pell then went to jail.
In November - considering the presence of formal defects in the procedural procedures - the appeal request was admitted with subsequent acquittal more than a year after the arrest.
Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged Pell's merits regarding the reform of the Vatican finances : «I have only given indications. But organizing this which, thank God, is going well with the Council for the Economy, with the Secretariat for the Economy. All this was clearly seen by Cardinal Pell, who is the one who started this». "Then he had to stay almost two years in Australia for this slander they made on him - who was innocent, but they made him ugly, poor fellow - and he walked away from this administration, but it was Pell who made the scheme of how we could go on. He is a great man and we owe him many things", concluded the Pope.
