Cardinal George Pell, the former head of finances for the Vatican who later served more than a year in an Australian prison on sex abuse charges that were later quashed, died Tuesday night in a Rome hospital, the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney confirmed.
He was 81, and the Italian newspaper “Corriere Della Sera” reported the cardinal died from complications “following a hip operation” earlier in the day.
“It is with deep sadness that I can confirm His Eminence, George Cardinal Pell, passed away in Rome in the early hours of this morning,” Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher wrote on Facebook.