Cardinal George Pell's body lies in state in Australia
STORY: A closed service was held with around 50 mourners whilst Pell’s body lay in state, before a public Pontifical funeral mass will be held on Thursday (February 2), at which thousands are expected to attend.
Child sexual abuse survivor victims and protesters gathered outside the church and spent the morning tying ribbons to the fence, in tribute to the lives impacted by abuse in the Catholic Church.
After 13 months in prison, an Australian appeals court ruling in 2020 quashed convictions that Pell sexually assaulted two choir boys in the 1990s ending the case of the most senior figure accused in the global scandal of historical sex abuse that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.
