SW News:

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott remembered Cardinal George Pell as “the greatest Catholic Australia has produced,” at the cardinal’s funeral Mass, which took place at Sydney St Mary’s cathedral on Thursday. “There should be Pell study courses, Pell spirituality courses, Pell lectures, Pell high schools, and Pell university colleges,” he said. “If we can direct our prayers to Mother Teresa, Thomas Becket and St Augustine, why not the late cardinal too?, Abbott asked, adding he “has been just as pleasing to God, I am sure, and has the added virtue of being the very best of us.” 

The funeral Mass was presided over by Archbishop Anthony Fisher. Hundreds of people participated in the Mass and paid their final tributes to the cardinal on February 2. Some of them where seen praying the Rosary outside the cathedral. 

Cardinal George Pell died from heart complications on January 10 following hip surgery in a Rome hospital. George Pell, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1966, served as the archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. He was appointed as the archbishop of Sydney in the same year by Pope St John Paul II, where he served for 14 years. Pell, who was made a cardinal in 2003, played an important role in successfully organizing the 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney. He was known to be a staunch defender of the Church teachings. 

The cardinal served 13 months in prison over two sexual abuse allegations, which were quashed by the High Court in Australia in April 2020. The court said in its judgment that “there is a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof.”