George Pell

George Pell (8 June 1941 – 10 January 2023) was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Pell was born on 8 June 1941 in Ballarat, Victoria, to George Arthur and Margaret Lillian Pell (née Burke).

His father was a non-practising Anglican whose ancestors were from Leicestershire in England; he was also a heavyweight boxing champion.

His mother was a devout Catholic of Irish descent.

As a child, Pell underwent 24 operations to remove an abscess in his throat.

Pell attended Loreto Convent and St Patrick's College in Ballarat.

At St Patrick's, he played Australian rules football as a ruckman on the first XVIII from 1956 to 1959.

He reportedly signed with the Richmond Football Club in 1959.

Pell's ambitions later turned to the priesthood.

Speaking of his decision to enter seminary, Pell once said, "To put it crudely, I feared and suspected and eventually became convinced that God wanted me to do His work, and I was never able to successfully escape that conviction."

In 1960, Pell began his studies for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, then located in Werribee.

He continued to play football and served as class prefect in his second and third years.

In 1963, he was assigned to continue studies at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.

Ordained a priest in 1966 and bishop in 1987, he was made a cardinal in 2003.

He was ordained to the diaconate on 15 August 1966.

On 16 December 1966, Pell was ordained a priest by Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian at St. Peter's Basilica.

He received a Licentiate of Sacred Theology degree from the Pontificia Università Urbaniana in 1967, and continued his studies at the University of Oxford where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in church history in 1971 with a thesis entitled "The exercise of authority in early Christianity from about 170 to about 270".

During his studies at Oxford he also served as a chaplain to Catholic students at Eton College.

In 1971, Pell returned to Australia and was assigned to serve as an assistant priest in Swan Hill, where he remained for two years.

He then served at a parish in Ballarat East from 1973 to 1983, becoming administrator of the parish of Bungaree in 1984.

During his tenure in Ballarat East and Bungaree, he also served as Episcopal Vicar for Education (1973–84), director of the Aquinas campus of the Institute of Catholic Education (1974–84) and principal of the Institute of Catholic Education (1981–84).

He was also editor of Light, the newspaper of the Diocese of Ballarat, from 1979 to 1984.

In 1982, he earned a Master of Education degree from Monash University in Melbourne.

From 1985 to 1987, Pell served as seminary rector of his alma mater, Corpus Christi College.

Pell was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne and titular Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scala (Italy) on 30 March 1987.

He received his episcopal consecration on 21 May 1987 from Archbishop Frank Little, with bishops Ronald Mulkearns and Joseph O'Connell serving as co-consecrators.

He served as Bishop for the Southern Region of Melbourne (1987–96).

During this time, he was a parish priest in Mentone.

Pell worked as a priest in rural Victoria and in Melbourne and also chaired the aid organisation Caritas Australia (part of Caritas Internationalis) from 1988 to 1997.

From 1996, Pell maintained a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining an adherence to Catholic orthodoxy.

During his tenure as Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell set up the "Melbourne Response" protocol in 1996 to investigate and deal with complaints of child sexual abuse in the archdiocese.

The protocol was the first of its kind in the world and was subjected to a variety of criticisms.

Pell was named seventh Archbishop of Melbourne on 16 July 1996, receiving the pallium from Pope John Paul II on 29 June 1997.

He was appointed a delegate to the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1998, received the Centenary Medal from the Australian government in 2003 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Pell served as the eighth Archbishop of Sydney (2001–2014), the seventh Archbishop of Melbourne (1996–2001) and an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne (1987–1996).

He was also an author, columnist and public speaker.

He served as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy between 2014 and 2019, and was a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers between 2013 and 2018.

In 2018, Pell was convicted of child sexual abuse, but on appeal, the convictions were quashed, and Pell acquitted, in 2020 by the High Court of Australia.Posthumous sources:

According to findings released by Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2020, Pell knew of child sexual abuse by clergy by the 1970s but did not take adequate action to address it.

Pell said he was "surprised" and that the commission's views "are not supported by evidence".