Australian Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative, died on Tuesday aged 81 in Rome.

"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," Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a statement.

A requiem for Pell would be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in the next few days, Fisher said, adding that his body would be brought back to Australia for a funeral mass.

"For many people, particularly of the Catholic faith, this will be a difficult day and I express my condolences to all those who are mourning today,'' said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Before a global sex-abuse scandal, Pell was widely seen as the right-hand man of Pope Francis and the third most powerful figure in the church. Pope Francis praised Pell for persevering in trying times, a reference to Pell's time spent in prison on allegations of sex abuse. 

NGOs call Pell a symbol of 'the Church's neglect of sexual abuse victims'

Clare Leaney, CEO of the In Good Faith Foundation, a foundation advocating for survivors of institutional abuse, said that Pell was a symbol of a system that put the interests of the Catholic Church above the safety of individuals. 

She reckoned that the news of Pell's death would lead to an increase of survivors speaking out. "As a result of this news, we anticipate a spike in individuals coming forward to disclose their experiences of institutional abuse for the first time."

Donald McLeish, who is part of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said that Pell embodied the Church's neglect of sexual abuse victims. 

"There's no joy in anyone dying of course, but a lot of the survivors will be very hard-nosed about it all," he said. "He's gone but the battle continues."

Sex abuse case

Pell was imprisoned in 2019 after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s.

He spent 12 months in Barwon Prison near Melbourne before the Australian High Court quashed his convictions following an appeal.

The ruling allowed the then-78-year-old Pell to walk free, ending the case of the most senior figure accused in the global scandal of historical sex abuse that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Australian in Rome

Born in a small regional town in the state of Victoria, Pell climbed higher in the Catholic Church than any other Australian before him.

Pell, a former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, served in the Vatican as economy minister from 2014 until he took a leave of absence in 2017 to return to Australia to face the charges.

He had been living in Rome since his acquittal in 2020.

dh/fb (AFP, Reuters, dpa)