George Pell has been credited with the unlikely recovery of a young American boy who stopped breathing for 52 minutes after he fell into a swimming pool.
Parents of the 18-month-old Vincent are said to have prayed for the intercession of the late cardinal before he was discharged from an Arizona hospital.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher related the story in an address to an event organised to honour Pell’s legacy at a Catholic liberal-arts college in Sydney’s west on Wednesday evening.
Pell was Australia’s most senior Catholic, having served as the archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney before taking charge of the Vatican’s financial affairs.
Campion College also unveiled the newly-named George Cardinal Pell Grand Hall at the event attended by former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott.
‘He’s 18 months old and fell into a swimming pool,’ the archbishop was quoted as saying by The Australian.
‘He stopped breathing for 52 minutes. His parents prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Pell.’
‘The boy survived and came off life support free of any damage to brain or lungs or heart. He’s fine now and his doctors are calling it a miracle.’
Victor (pictured) stopped breathing for close to an hour before making a ‘miracle’ recovery
The late George Cardinal Pell (pictured) was acquitted of five sexual offences by the High Court in 2020 after spending 404 days in solitary confinement
Pell’s supporters may cite the boy’s unlikely recovery as one of two miracles required for canonisation as a saint of the Catholic Church.
The process generally does not begin for at least five years following the individuals death and would likely be a politically fraught process given Pell’s controversial legacy.
Vincent was said to have spent 10 days in hospital before being discharged.
The boy’s uncle, a Catholic priest, is reported to have contacted Pell’s former secretary Father Joseph Hamilton requesting prayers for Vincent’s recovery.
Mr Hamilton claimed the boy’s parents had prayed to Pell after having met him in 2021 while he was on a book tour in their home town of Phoenix.
He was promoting his three-volume Prison Journal, which he wrote during a 404-day stint largely spent in solitary confinement after being convicted of a range of sexual offences for which he has since been acquitted.
He was acquitted by the High Court in 2020 of sexually assaulting two choirboys in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne.
The events were said to have taken place on two occasions in late 1996 and early 1997 when Pell had recently been appointed Archbishop of Melbourne.
Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher is pictured presenting on Wednesday evening
George Pell’s coffin is seen being carried out of St Mary’s Cathedral on February 2, 2023
Pell was first tried in August 2018 before a jury which was ultimately unable to reach a verdict. He was found guilty of all five sexual offences in a separate trial later that year.
A majority of the Victorian Court of Appeal subsequently upheld his convictions before the High Court quashed the convictions.
The single judgment published by the court held there was a ‘significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt’.
Earlier this year, the ABC reported that two alleged victims of the late cardinal had been granted compensation by the federal government’s National Redress Scheme.
One man was offered the compensation in January 2023 just five weeks before Pell died of cardiac arrest following hip surgery in Rome.
Using a lower standard of proof than the criminal courts, the scheme found it was ‘reasonably likely’ Pell had groped the then-eight-year-old’s genitals at a public swimming pool in Ballarat.
The other compensation payment related to the alleged rape of a then-nine-year-old student at Ballarat’s St Francis Xavier Primary School.
The first man was received $45,000 in compensation from the scheme while the second was granted $95,000.
Campion College in Sydney’s west unveiled the hall named in Pell’s honour on Wednesday
The ABC was later ordered to remove the article by the Department of Social Services which claimed it had disclosed protected information.
The Wednesday event also featured a book signing by journalist and commentator Tess Livingstone to celebrate the launch of her new biography: George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictis’.
Published by a California-based Catholic publisher, Ignatius Press, the book was branded as the ‘definitive biography’ of the late reformer.
‘Like many bishops of his generation, Pell found dealing with corruption in the church a herculean challenge,’ promotional materials for the book said.
‘After being falsely accused of indifference to clerical sex abuse and of committing it himself, he suffered 404 days in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit.’
Mr Howard referred to Pell as ‘an intellectual inspiration’ at the event.
‘What he gave to the Christian religion and very particularly to the Catholic Church, was a lifetime of service and devotion,’ he said.
‘His tenacity and his strength and his resilience would’ve broken most of us, but not him. And he was sustained in that by his resolute faith.’
A spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney told Daily Mail Australia Archbishop Fisher was unavailable for comment.
Ignatius Press and Campion College were also contacted for comment.