Pope Francis praised Pell’s contribution to Vatican economic reform

The Pope Francisco praised the contribution “with determination and wisdom” of the Australian cardinal George Pellwho died this Tuesday at the age of 81, to the economic reform implemented in the Vaticanin the telegram of condolences sent to the college of cardinals.

LOOK: Australian Cardinal George Pell, former right-hand man of the Pope in the Vatican and acquitted of pedophilia, dies

Pell, who was convicted in 2018 and spent more than 400 days in prison before being acquitted of sexually abusing two minors in the 1990s, died in a Rome clinic of complications after hip replacement surgery. .

The Australian cardinal had been chosen to form part of the C9, the council of cardinals called to help Pope Francis in his government, and later he was prefect of the Secretariat of Economy, the new “ministry” of Finance to provide transparency and order in the accounts of the Holy See.

“I wish to express to you and to the entire college of cardinals, and in a special way to your brother David and other relatives, my closeness. I express my heartfelt condolences, recalling with gratitude his coherent and committed testimony and his dedication to the Gospel and to the Church,” Francis said in the telegram sent to the dean of the college of cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re.

In the message, the Pope highlighted “the diligent collaboration provided to the Holy See in the context of the recent economic reform for which he laid the foundations with determination and wisdom.”

Francis asks for prayers for “this faithful servant who, without hesitating, has followed the Lord with perseverance even in the hour of trial” and sends his blessing to all those who share the pain of the death of the cardinal.

Pell – who had long suffered from heart problems and had had a pacemaker implanted since 2010 – was in Rome, where he had returned in September 2020, two years after going on trial in Australia on allegations of sexual abuse of minors in the decade. of the 1990s and after which he was imprisoned for 404 days, before his final acquittal.

Born in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1941, archbishop emeritus of Sydney and later of Melbourne, the cardinal had been called by Pope Francis on April 13, 2013 to be part of the Council of Cardinals to study a reform project and help him in the process. Church government. On February 24, 2014, he had been named prefect of the newly created Ministry of Economy, initiating a series of financial reforms. He had left both positions in December 2018 and February 2019, respectively.

Back in Rome, Francis received Pell in audience and thanked him for his “testimony” while in the interview broadcast over the Christmas period by the Italian television channel Mediaset, the pontiff dismissed the allegations of abuses in Australia as “slander” and said that he was “a great man and we owe him a lot”.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.