10 notable Christian ministry leaders, influencers who died in 2023
George Pell – Jan. 10, 2023
Cardinal George Pell, an Australian Catholic Church official convicted of child sex abuse only to have his convictions overturned over a year later, died in Rome, Italy, at age 81.
The former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, at his peak of power, Pell was the third-highest ranked official in the Vatican after being appointed by Pope Francis to serve as the Holy See's first finance czar in 2014.
In 2018, a Victoria state County Court jury found Pell guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in the 1990s, with him serving 404 days in solitary confinement until he was acquitted on appeal.
The Most Rev. Anthony Fisher, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, said in a statement that he considered Pell “a fine priest” and “a good Christian soul.”
“Cardinal Pell’s episcopal motto was ‘Be Not Afraid’ and through good days and bad, he lived up to these words as a man of courage and with a big heart, who trusted in divine providence,” stated Fisher.
SNAP Australia, a clergy sex abuse awareness group, described Pell as “a man despised and mistrusted by thousands of survivors and supporters in Australia and beyond.”
