George Pell
George Pell AC (8 June 1941 – 10 January 2023) was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. 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. Ordained a priest in 1966 and bishop in 1987, he was made a cardinal in 2003. 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. From 1996, Pell maintained a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining an adherence to Catholic orthodoxy.
George Pell
24 February 2014
24 February 2019
Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarello (2003–2023)
16 December 1966
by Gregorio Pietro Agagianian
21 May 1987
by Frank Little
21 October 2003
by John Paul II
8 June 1941
10 January 2023 (aged 81)
Rome, Italy
- Titular Bishop of Scala (1987–1996)
- Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne (1987–1996)
- Archbishop of Melbourne (1996–2001)
- Archbishop of Sydney (2001–2014)
- Member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers (2013–2018)
- Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy (2014–2019)
Nolite timere
(Latin for 'Be not afraid')
Gregorio Pietro Agagianian
Gregorio Pietro Agagianian
16 December 1966
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Frank Little (Melbourne)
- Ronald Mulkearns (Ballarat)
- Joseph O'Connell (Melbourne aux.)
21 May 1987
Pope John Paul II
21 October 2003
9 December 1997
9 December 1997
10 February 1999
30 August 2001
3 September 2003
3 September 2003
16 November 2007
26 June 2009
8 June 2011
15 June 2011
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. 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.[1] 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.[2][3] The protocol was the first of its kind in the world and was subjected to a variety of criticisms.[2]
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.[4] A separate investigation by the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into these allegations of abuse concluded upon his acquittal by the High Court.[5]
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".[6]
Early life and education
Pell was born on 8 June 1941 in Ballarat, Victoria,[7] to George Arthur and Margaret Lillian Pell (née Burke).[8] His father was a non-practising Anglican whose ancestors were from Leicestershire in England; he was also a heavyweight boxing champion.[9] His mother was a devout Catholic of Irish descent.[10]: 21 As a child, Pell underwent 24 operations to remove an abscess in his throat.[10]: 25
Pell attended Loreto Convent and St Patrick's College in Ballarat.[11] At St Patrick's, he played Australian rules football as a ruckman on the first XVIII from 1956 to 1959.[12] 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."[10]: 34
In 1960, Pell began his studies for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, then located in Werribee.[11][a] He continued to play football and served as class prefect in his second and third years.[10]: 41–42 In 1963, he was assigned to continue studies at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome.[12] He was ordained to the diaconate on 15 August 1966.[8]
Ecclesiastical career
Priesthood
On 16 December 1966, Pell was ordained a priest by Cardinal Gregorio Pietro Agagianian[13] at St. Peter's Basilica.[14] 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".[8][15] During his studies at Oxford he also served as a chaplain to Catholic students at Eton College.[16]
In 1971, Pell returned to Australia and was assigned to serve as an assistant priest in Swan Hill, where he remained for two years.[8] He then served at a parish in Ballarat East from 1973 to 1983, becoming administrator of the parish of Bungaree in 1984.[8] In 1982, he earned a Master of Education degree from Monash University in Melbourne.[11] 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).[11][7] He was also editor of Light, the newspaper of the Diocese of Ballarat, from 1979 to 1984.[8]
From 1985 to 1987, Pell served as seminary rector of his alma mater, Corpus Christi College.[11]
Diocesan episcopal career
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.[11]
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 later appointed eighth Archbishop of Sydney on 26 March 2001 and again received the pallium from John Paul on 29 June 2001.[17]
Pell was a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace from 1990 to 1995 and a member from 2002. From 1990 to 2000 he was a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In April 2002, John Paul II named him President of the Vox Clara commission to advise the Congregation for Divine Worship on English translations of liturgical texts.[17] On 21 December 2002 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family,[18] having previously served as a consultor to the council. On 22 September 2012, Pell was appointed a member of the Congregation for Bishops.[19]
As Archbishop of Melbourne, Pell maintained a high public profile on a wide range of issues, while retaining a strict adherence to Catholic orthodoxy; with some dispute over the issue of Catholics and "primacy of conscience".[20][21][22]
In 2001, he argued: "We must not allow the situation to deteriorate as it had in Elijah's time, 850 years before Christ, where monotheism was nearly swamped by the aggressive paganism of the followers of Baal." In 2010, on reviewing the movie Avatar, he wrote: "Worship of the powerful forces of nature is half right, a primitive stage in the movement towards acknowledging the one: the single Transcendent God, above and beyond nature. It is a symptom of our age that Hollywood is pumping out this old-fashioned pagan propaganda."[23]
Pope John Paul II announced on 28 September 2003 that he would appoint Pell and 28 others to the College of Cardinals.[24] In the consistory of 21 October he was made cardinal priest of Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarello.[25] With Pell as cardinal, Australia had, for the first time, three cardinals eligible to participate in a papal election: Pell, Edward Bede Clancy and Edward Idris Cassidy.[26]
Pell was one of the cardinal electors in 2005 who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. He is reported to have served as an unauthorised "campaign manager" for Ratzinger.[27][28] Pell was mentioned as a possible successor to Benedict XVI as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[28]
Pell instituted new guidelines in February 2007 for family members speaking at funerals. He said that, "on not a few occasions, inappropriate remarks glossing over the deceased's proclivities (drinking prowess, romantic conquests etc) or about the church (attacking its moral teachings) have been made at funeral Masses." Under Pell's guidelines, the eulogy must never replace the celebrant's homily, which should focus on the scripture readings selected, God's compassion, and the resurrection of Jesus.[29]
Other roles
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney takes the role of visitor of St John's College, a residential college within the University of Sydney.[131]
Pell accepted the invitation to be patron of the Oxford University Newman Society and to deliver their inaugural St Thomas More Lecture on 6 March 2009.[132]
Allegations of child sexual abuse
2002 allegation
In June 2002, a Melbourne man named Phil Scott[190] accused Pell of sexually abusing him at a Catholic youth camp in 1961, when the accuser was 12 years old and Pell was a young seminarian. Pell denied the accusations and stood aside while the inquiry continued.[191] The complainant agreed to pursue his allegations through the church's own process for dealing with allegations of sexual misconduct, the National Committee for Professional Standards. Retired Victorian Supreme Court Justice Alec Southwell, appointed commissioner by the church to investigate the matter, found that the complainant, despite his long criminal record, had mostly given the impression of speaking honestly from actual recollection but concluded as follows: "bearing in mind the forensic difficulties of the defence occasioned by the very long delay, some valid criticism of the complainant's credibility, the lack of corroborative evidence and the sworn denial of the respondent, I find I am not 'satisfied that the complaint has been established'".[192][193] Pell said he had been exonerated, while the complainant's solicitor said his client had been vindicated.[193]
Victoria Police investigations
In March 2013, Victoria Police launched Operation Tethering to investigate whether Pell had committed unreported crimes.[194] On 20 February 2016, the Herald Sun newspaper reported that Pell had been under investigation for the past year by detectives from the Victoria Police SANO Taskforce over sexual abuse allegations involving between five and ten boys that occurred between 1978 and 2001 when he was a priest in Ballarat and when he was archbishop of Melbourne.[195] His office issued a statement denying the allegations, and asked for an inquiry into the leaking of information by Victoria Police officers.[195] Victoria Police remained silent on whether Pell was being investigated.[195] The SANO Taskforce was established in 2012 to investigate allegations arising from the Victorian Government Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations and the subsequent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.[195][196]
On 28 July 2016, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Graham Ashton, confirmed that there was an investigation into alleged child sexual abuse by Pell, and stated he was awaiting advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).[197][198][199] On 17 August 2016, Victoria Police said a response had been received from the DPP, but would not disclose the DPP's recommendations.[200]
In October 2016, three Victoria Police officers from the SANO Task Force flew to Rome to interview Pell, who participated voluntarily, regarding allegations of sexual assault.[201] In February 2017, Victoria Police advised that the brief of evidence against Pell had been returned to the Office of Public Prosecutions. That Office subsequently provided advice to Victoria Police in May 2017.[202][203]
Pell wrote widely in religious and secular magazines, including journals and newspapers in Australia and overseas.[138] He regularly spoke on television and radio. His other publications included The Sisters of St Joseph in Swan Hill 1922–72 (1972), Catholicism in Australia (1988), Rerum Novarum – One Hundred Years Later (1992), Catholicism and the Architecture of Freedom.
:
Knight Grand Cross (2001) Grand Prior of the New South Wales Lieutenancy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (2001-2013),[138] Grand Prior of the Australian Lieutenancy – Southern of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (1998–2001)
Holy See
Australia: Companion of the Order of Australia (2005) for service to the Catholic Church in Australia and internationally, to raising debate on matters of an ethical and spiritual nature, to education and to social justice.[283][c]
