George Pell (1941 - 2023)

Born 8 Jun 1941 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Died 10 Jan 2023 at age 81 in Salvator Mundi Hospital, Rome, Italy

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Biography

Cardinal George Pell Pell was born in Victoria, Australia

Cardinal George Pell Pell is Notable.

George, son of George Arthur Pell and Margaret Lillian Pell (nee Burke), was born in Ballarat, Victoria on 8 June 1941.^[1]

An article in the Guardian newspaper says:^[2]

George Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, on 8 June 1941, the third of five children of George Arthur Pell and Margaret Lillian (née Burke). He had a younger sister, Margaret, and a brother, David, and twin older siblings who died as infants. Pell’s father, a non-practising Anglican, was a larger-than-life character who had been a publican, goldmine manager, champion boxer, lifesaver and clearance diver. His mother, by contrast, was a pious Catholic.

Pell attended St Patrick’s College in Ballarat where his commanding height, cool demeanour and athleticism preordained him for the rowing, athletics and Australian rules football teams, with whom he won trophy after trophy. So accomplished was he that he signed a contract with the VFL club Richmond while still at school. Asked by Sky News in 2016 if he was not “a bit of a thug” on the field, Pell said: “Well, I was very fiery. I’ve got a formidable temper which I almost never show.”

He said the discipline he imposed on himself “not to lapse in that way” helped to explain his often wooden responses under questioning at the royal commission much later in life.

Ordained a priest in 1966, he was Archbishop of Sydney from 2001-2004.^[1]

He was appointed the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Vatican City in 2014 and remained in that position until 2019.^[1]

He died aged 81 in Rome on 10 January 2023 of cardiac arrest at the Salvator Mundi hospital in Rome following surgery for a hip replacement.^[1][3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Wikipedia George Pell
2. ↑ King, Jennifer Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most powerful Catholic, who was dogged by scandal – obituary The Guardian, January 2023.
3. ↑ ABC news