Cardinal George Pell, a powerful but divisive figure within the Catholic Church, dies at 81
CBSN
Rome — Cardinal George Pell, a onetime financial adviser to Pope Francis who spent 404 days in solitary confinement in his native Australia before his child sex abuse convictions were overturned, has died at age 81.
He was a divisive figure. He lived to see Vatican rivals charged with financial crimes after he worked to reform the Holy See's finances. In Australia, he was a lightning rod for disagreements over whether the Catholic Church had been properly held to account for historic child sex abuse. Pell died Tuesday in Rome, where he had attended the funeral last week of Pope Benedict XVI. Pell suffered fatal heart complications following hip surgery, said Archbishop Peter Comensoli, Pell's successor as archbishop of Melbourne. Sydney Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher told reporters the death had come as a shock. "It will be for historians to assess his impact on the life of the church in Australia and beyond, but it was considerable and will be long lasting," Fisher said.
"For many people, particularly of the Catholic faith, this will be a difficult day and I express my condolences to all those who are mourning today," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Fisher said a requiem for Pell would be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in the next few days, and in time his body would be brought back to Australia for a funeral Mass and buried in the crypt at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. Journalist Lucie Morris-Marr, who wrote the book "Fallen" about Pell's trial, said on Twitter that Pell's death "will be terribly triggering for many Australians impacted by Catholic child sexual abuse and not just those involved in his trial." Pell, the former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, became the third-highest ranked official in the Vatican after Pope Francis tapped him in 2014 to reform the Vatican's notoriously opaque finances as the Holy See's first-ever finance czar.
France's domestic intelligence agency has detained a 26-year-old Russian-Ukrainian man on suspicion of planning a violent act after he injured himself in an explosion, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The news came hours before world leaders gathered in the nation to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy.
A British-Mexican man who says he was targeted for being gay and arrested on false drug charges in Qatar has been given a suspended six-month jail sentence, a fine amounting to about $2,700, and a deportation order by a court in the Arab nation, which is a vital U.S. ally in the Middle East, according to his family and Mexican officials.
An Israeli strike early Thursday on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children, according to local health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. The hospital treating victims said it had received the bodies of at least "37 martyrs" from the strike, according to Agence France-Presse. But a U.N. official tells the Reuters news agency the death toll is between 35 and 45, though it still can't confirm any numbers.
Jerusalem — Thousands of Israeli nationalists marched Wednesday through east Jerusalem as authorities deployed police with tensions sky-high nearly eight months into the Gaza war. That war appeared to be intensifying in Gaza and the far-right nationalists staged their annual march – long deemed a provocation by Palestinians – in Jerusalem.
The world has now marked one full year of back-to-back monthly heat records, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. It said last month was the hottest May in recorded history — the 12th consecutive month in which the monthly high temperature record was broken.
New Delhi — India's 2024 election results show Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to win his third term in office, with the political alliance led by his Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on track to win a solid majority of the seats up for grabs in India's Parliament. Final numbers were expected later Tuesday, but the results of the world's biggest democratic elections appeared clear: Modi will keep his job, but with a smaller mandate than was widely expected or promised by his party.
Seoul, South Korea — South Korea on Tuesday took steps to suspend a contentious military agreement with North Korea and resume front-line military activities, as tension between the rivals rises over the North's recent launch of trash-carrying balloons. North Korea didn't immediately respond, but South Korea's resumption of firing exercises or propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts will likely prompt North Korea to take similar or stronger steps along the rivals' heavily militarized border.
Berlin — A recent survey conducted for a sports program that airs on a regional public broadcaster in Germany revealed that one in five Germans (21% of respondents) would prefer to see more White players on the German national soccer team. The survey conducted for Western Germany's WDR network's "Sport Inside" show has drawn sharp criticism, with the national team's coach Julian Nagelsmann among those expressing shock.