The funeral Mass itself was celebrated by an Italian cardinal, Giovanni Battista Re, in his role as Dean of the College of Cardinals.
Earlier Pell's closed dark brown wooden coffin was placed on the floor in the church of St Stephen of the Abyssinians inside the Vatican walls, before it was moved inside St Peter's Basilica for the service.
As the Vatican's finance minister for three years, Pell had been a key player in the early years of Francis' papacy, whose goals included reforming the Holy See's finances, which had a long history of scandals and poor management.
Right after Pell's death, it was revealed that the cardinal was the author of a memo that had been circulating for many months. In the memo, Pell had lamented that the current papacy as a "disaster" and a "catastrophe."
Separately, the day after Pell died, a conservative magazine published what it said was an article by the cardinal decrying as a "toxic nightmare" Francis' determination to sound out Catholic laity on such issues as church teaching on sexuality and the role of women.
Those issues are expected to be hotly debated later this year in a meeting of bishops from around the world summoned by Francis to the Vatican.
The day after Pell died, Francis in a condolence telegram paid tribute to the cardinal, saying that while the prelate led the economy office, "he laid the bases with determination and wisdom" for reforms of the Holy See's finance system, which had been taken to task for years by international financial watchdog bodies.
Among the concelebrants at the altar on Saturday for Pell's service, was another high-profile Vatican prelate who in recent days had blasted Francis' leadership of the Roman Catholic church.
German Archbishop Georg Gaenswein – like Pell a staunch advocate of the church hierarchy's more conservative faction and a longtime aide of Pope Benedict XVI – bitterly complained about how he was treated by Francis after Benedict retired in 2013 and Francis was elected as pontiff.
Gaenswein unleashed a torrent of criticism of Francis in interviews hours after Benedict died in retirement at the Vatican on December 31 and in a book published days later.
A top adviser to Pope Francis and one of the most powerful figures in the Vatican, Pell faced criticism for his response to child sexual abuse allegations within the church and was himself jailed on historical charges in a conviction that was later quashed.
Pell, the highest-ranking Catholic official to be jailed over child sexual abuse allegations, always maintained his innocence but spent more than a year in jail before the High Court overturned the decision in 2020.
Born in Ballarat in 1941, Pell went on to rise through the ranks of the Catholic church, serving as both Archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney before rising to become the third most powerful official at the Vatican.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LjluZXdzLmNvbS5hdS93b3JsZC9jYXJkaW5hbC1nZW9yZ2UtcGVsbC1saWVzLWluLXN0YXRlLXZhdGljYW4tZnVuZXJhbC1zZXJ2aWNlLzg4MmE1OTQwLTExOWQtNDAwNy1hMzIxLTkzMmI5YWQxNWFkZNIBRWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLjluZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzg4MmE1OTQwLTExOWQtNDAwNy1hMzIxLTkzMmI5YWQxNWFkZA?oc=5
2023-01-14 13:09:42Z
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