SYDNEY: For two decades, George Pell was the dominant figure in the Catholic Church in Australia: a boy from a gold mining town whose ambition, ...
Share via E-Mail Bookmark SYDNEY: For two decades, George Pell was the dominant figure in the Catholic Church in Australia: a boy from a gold mining town whose ambition, intellect and knack for befriending influential people propelled him to become the third-most senior official in the Vatican. That came crashing down in December, when a court found Pell, 77, guilty of five charges of child sex offences committed in a Melbourne cathedral 115 km from his hometown of Ballarat.
Top Vatican cleric Cardinal Pell convicted of child sex crimes Pell is the most senior Roman Catholic official to be convicted of sexual offences, bringing a rolling abuse scandal that has dogged the church worldwide for three decades to the heart of both the Vatican and Australian civic life. Pell spent most of his first three decades as a priest in Ballarat, an old gold mining town in the state of Victoria, about 120 km from Melbourne.
In meetings among cardinals before the conclave that elected Pope Francis in 2013, the Australian stood out not only for his imposing height and broad shoulders, but also for his command of financial matters. Hoping to end Vatican financial scandals, the pope moved Pell to Rome and in 2014 he was appointed to run a new ministry, the Secretariat for the Economy.
Vatican treasurer's trial on historical sex offences to last 10 weeks, court hears Some victims' advocates say the conviction of so high profile a figure could encourage other survivors of clerical abuse to speak out.