Australian Cardinal George Pell, acquitted of child sex abuse, dead at 81

By Philip Pullella and Sonali Paul ROME (Reuters) -Australian Cardinal George Pell, a leading Roman Catholic conservative and former top Vatican official who in 2020 was acquitted of sexual abuse allegations, died on Tuesday at the age of 81, his private secretary said. Fr. Joseph Hamilton told Reuters Pell died in a Rome hospital on Tuesday night. Archbishop Peter Comensoli, the Archbishop of Melbourne, said Pell had died from heart complications following hip surgery. An Australian appeals court ruling in 2020 quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choir boys in the 1990s. The ...