Cardinal George Pell at the Vatican (Archive) © Robert Duncan/CNS photo (CBA)
Australian cardinal and former Vatican finance chief George Pell arrived in Rome on Wednesday. The occasion is unknown. This is the first visit since July 2017. He left waiting journalists standing.
In the meantime, Pell was charged and convicted of sexual abuse in Australia, but then acquitted at the highest court of law. His mandate as head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy ended in February 2019.
According to Italian media, Pell arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport at noon and headed from there to his apartment near the Vatican, across the street from the Swiss Guard barracks. He left questions from waiting journalists unanswered.
Pell was the highest-ranking cleric ever to stand trial for sexual abuse. He himself always denied the accusations. During the trial, the Vatican avoided any statement on the question of guilt and declared that a possible internal criminal investigation would only take place after the verdict of the state judiciary.
Competence dispute with Becciu
As the first head of the Secretariat for the Economy, created in 2014, Pell criticized non-transparent cash management in various curia offices and took ie with Giovanni Angelo Becciu, then a substitute in the Secretariat of State, in a dispute over authority.
Investments from his term of office are currently being investigated by the courts. Becciu, who became head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and a cardinal in 2018, resigned from his post last week without giving a reason, renouncing his rights and privileges as a cardinal.