Pell leaves complex legacy as Abbott remembers ‘a saint for our times’

Former Liberal prime ministers have remembered Cardinal George Pell as “a saint for our times” and unfairly charged over child abuse allegations as the wider community grappled with the senior Catholic’s “complex legacy” after his death on Wednesday.

Cardinal Pell, 81, was the former Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney who climbed higher within the church than any other Australian. He died of complications after undergoing hip replacement surgery in Vatican City.