His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy

George Cardinal Pell assumed the role of Patron of the School of the Annunciation in 2014, presiding at the Foundation Mass on the Feast of The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Buckfast Abbey on 8th September 2014.  During his homily Cardinal Pell said:

“The School of the Annunciation is a brave and important initiative, one example of the New Evangelisation at work; the challenges proposed to us by recent popes, and especially by Saint Pope John Paul II.”

Cardinal Pell is the first Prefect appointed to oversee the Holy See’s newest Dicastery, the Secretariat for the Economy, as well as serving as a member the Council of Cardinal Advisers, the group of nine cardinals advising the Holy Father on the reform of the government of the universal Church.

Cardinal Pell was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ballarat, Australia, in 1966, and in 1987 was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.  In 1997 he received the Pallium from Pope St John Paul II as Metropolitan Archbishop of Melbourne, and in 2001 George Pell was installed as the Archbishop of Sydney.  Pope St John Paul II elevated him to the Sacred College of Cardinals in 2003, creating him Cardinal Priest of the Church of Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello in Rome. In 2002 Cardinal Pell was appointed President of the Vox Clara Committee to advise the Congregation for Divine Worship on English translations of liturgical texts.

Cardinal Pell holds a Licentiate in Theology from Urban University, Rome (1967), a Masters Degree in Education from Monash University, Melbourne (1982), and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Church History from the University of Oxford (1971). He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators, and was Visiting Scholar at Campion Hall, Oxford University, in 1979 and at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge University, in 1983. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund’s in 2003.

Since the 1970’s Cardinal Pell has had a long and distinguished record of personal commitment and achievement in Catholic education at local and national level. He has served as Director of the Aquinas Campus of the Institute of Catholic Education, Principal of the Institute of Catholic Education, Episcopal Vicar for Education in the Diocese of Ballarat, a founding member of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, a member of the Academic Board of the State College of Victoria, and served on the councils of many colleges.

Cardinal Pell also draws on a wealth of experience in the foundation of Catholic Universities and colleges – involved in setting up, and serving as the Pro-Chancellor, of the new Australian Catholic University; establishing the new city campus of the University in Melbourne; founding the Australian campus of the international John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family; establishing campuses of the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney, and founding the first Catholic law school and Catholic medical school in East Australia. In 2003 he served as Patron of the capital appeal for Campion College, Australia’s first Catholic liberal arts college.

He has also commissioned the religious education programme To Know, Worship and Love  for Catholic schools which is used in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and Archdiocese of Sydney.

Cardinal Pell’s recent published works include:
Contemplating Christ with Luke.  Ballarat: Connor Court Publishing, 2012
Test Everything: Hold Fast To What Is Good. London: Quartet Books, 2011
God and Caesar: Selected Essays on Religion, Politics, and Society. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007
Do Not Be Afraid: Collected Writings. Sydney: Duffy & Snellgrove, 2004
Issues of Faith and Morals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996