Australia’s most senior Catholic figure has passed away

Cardinal George Pell has died after complications from a hip replacement surgery.

Sources said Cardinal Pell died of cardiac arrest in a Rome hospital.

Pell was appointed to the role of Secretariat for the Economy by the Vatican in 2014.

He oversaw plans for a major overhaul of the troubled bank and called for more financial transparency.

However, in 2017 he was charged with multiple counts of historical child sexual assault in Melbourne, Australia. He denied the charges, and Australia’s High Court overturned the decision.

He was sentenced to six years, with a minimum three years and eight months behind bars.

Pell was born in 1941 in Ballarat, Victoria. He began studying priesthood at Corpus Christian College before completing further study in Rome.

He was 81 years old.