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Cardinal George Pell, who was once dogged by child sex abuse convictions, has died in Rome at the age of 81.
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A onetime financial adviser to Pope Francis, Pell lived to see Vatican rivals charged with financial crimes after he worked to reform the Holy See's finances in Rome.
He was convicted of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the late 1990s as the archbishop of Melbourne.
He spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his child sex abuse convictions were all reversed in 2020.
Pell and his supporters adamantly believed he was scapegoated for the Australian Catholic Church's tainted response to clergy sex abuse.
Journalist Lucie Morris-Marr, who wrote the book "Fallen" about Pell's trial, called his death "triggering" for Australians horrified by the scandal.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican over the next few days.
His body will be brought back to Australia and buried at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.
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