Sky News host Andrew Bolt has claimed Cardinal George Pell’s body had been “mucked up” – with the nose broken and his clothes simply thrown into the coffin – before it returned to Australia after his death.
Pell died at the age of 81 in a Rome hospital in Italy on January 10, 2023 as a result of complications from a routine hip surgery.
His body was embalmed by the Vatican before a requiem mass was held for him at St Peter’s Basilica.
Pell’s body was then flown home to Australia where his funeral took place at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on February 1.
Sky News host Andrew Bolt revealed graphic details of the process on Wednesday night as he described how a confidante of Pell who was at the opening of the Cardinal’s coffin found his body had been treated with “gross disrespect” in what the host described as a “final insult” to a “great and innocent man.”
Bolt called Pell’s brother David to confirm if he knew about what had happened to the Cardinal’s body.
“As he confirmed, the embalming, in his words, had been mucked up, or buggered up,” Bolt said.
“A Sydney undertaker had to clean the body – Pell’s nose had also been broken. Pell was also shoeless.
“In fact, I’d been told he wasn’t only shoeless – all his clothes had simply been just thrown in the coffin.”
The host said the Cardinal was still given an appropriate farewell by the Vatican but that it should be “ashamed” over how his body was treated.
“It is true that the Vatican did Pell the full honours at his death, with a packed service at St Peter’s, attended by the Pope, and Pell remains of course admired by many around the world, including me… admired as a man of God, a man of principle, a reformer, a strong leader and a man persecuted for his faith.
“But the Vatican should now be deeply, deeply ashamed to have treated his body so shabbily.”
In the years before his death, Pell helped lead an audit of Vatican finances in an investigation of corruption.
He was joined by forensic auditor Ferrucio Panicco and accountant Libero Milone, later appointed as the Vatican’s first independent auditor-general.
Panicco and Milone were forced to resign after being accused of spying and threatened with prosecution for criminal activity, The Australian reported.
A week later, Pell was charged by Victoria Police with sexual assault offences, which were later quashed unanimously by the High Court in 2020.
Bolt said while he didn’t buy into conspiracies regarding Pell’s death, there had been suggestions there was still bad feeling towards him within the Vatican.
“Perhaps it was just incompetence, but some of Pell’s closest associates have told me they suspected some in the Vatican had not forgiven Pell for exposing corruption,” Bolt said.
“Now Pell once told me he didn’t feel safe in the Vatican as he chased the thieves who hid documents in London, Sydney…
“What was done to him after his death makes me suspect he was right.”