This definitive biography traces Cardinal George Pell’s life from his childhood in Australia to his role as the Vatican treasurer; through his trials, unjust imprisonment, and exoneration to his untimely passing away on January 10, 2023.

Richly endowed with intellectual and athletic talent, strong faith in Christ, a solid family, and a great capacity for friendship, the young Pell turned down a professional Australian Rules football contract and instead entered the seminary in 1960. After his ordination to the priesthood at Saint Peter's Basilica in 1966 and completing a doctorate in Church history at Oxford, he served as a country curate, a Catholic university leader, a seminary rector, the archbishop of Melbourne, and the archbishop of Sydney. Made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003, he was chosen by Pope Francis as the prefect for the new Secretariat for the Economy in 2014.

His legacy includes rebuilding Church precincts in Melbourne and Sydney, revitalizing seminary formation, founding Catholic universities, leading Australia's main Catholic foreign aid agency, and heading World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney. From a weekly column in Australia's largest-circulation Sunday newspaper to bestselling books and scholarly lectures, he has left a trove of writings. This book includes snippets of some of the best of them and captures his ideas, wit, and personality.

Like many bishops of his generation, Pell found dealing with corruption in the Church a herculean challenge. 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. In his role as Vatican treasurer, his efforts to reform the Church's finances met with resistance from an entrenched "old guard". Through it all, he retained his dignity and integrity as a faithful successor to the apostles.

Tess Livingstone is a veteran Australian journalist who has written on politics, economics, strategic policy, and the culture wars. She has written editorials for The Australian and The Weekend Australian since 2007 and was formerly Chief-of-Staff, Op-Ed editor, and education editor for The Courier Mail.

"My friend, George Pell, was a giant – on the football field as a young man, as a priest and bishop humbly serving the flock in his native Australia, as an intellect unafraid of the rough-and-tumble give-and-take when discussing ideas and beliefs, and as a cardinal on the world stage. My thanks to Tess Livingstone for this engaging biography, which captures the fact that, most of all, George Pell was a giant in his love of Jesus and His Church, whom he served with vigor and courage every day of his extraordinary life."
— Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York

"A well-documented, insightful, and engaging biography of one of the most consequential Catholic Church leaders of our time.  Cardinal Pell was a man of utter integrity, bold courage, and persevering fidelity. Especially helpful is the way the biographer distinguishes fact from fiction in the travesty of specious allegation, rigged trial, and blatantly unjust imprisonment."
— Archbishop Alfred Hughes, Author, Spiritual Masters: Living and Praying in the Catholic Tradition

"Cardinal Pell was a lion of a man who was despised, spat upon, and falsely accused. His example, courage, and fidelity to Christ and the Church has raised up a small but powerful army of good priests in my homeland."
— Matt Fradd, Founder and Host, Pints with Aquinas

"Cardinal Pell ranks was one of the truly great Catholic shepherds of my lifetime. He was extraordinary in every sense: a man of sacrificial faith, superior intelligence, and tremendous evangelical energy.  Tess Livingstone has captured all these qualities, along with Pell's compelling humanity and candor, in this marvelous biography."
— Francis X. Maier, Author, True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church

"Tess Livingstone counts George Pell amongst the great cardinal lions of our time: Poland's Stefan Wyszynski, Hungary's Joseph Mindszenty, China's Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei. Livingstone knows Cardinal Pell from the inside and shares a revealing account of the magnanimous life of a great churchman. 'Be not Afraid' was Pell's motto. Livingstone's book will help readers to live beyond fear."
— Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register

"Cardinal Pell was Australia's greatest-ever churchman. In the pages of this illuminating biography, the richness of Pell's faith is made obvious against the backdrop of his life as an unashamed witness of the Gospel. Livingstone paints the picture of a true Good Shepherd, a loyal son of the Church who courageously carried his cross whilst clinging to God's truth, beauty, and goodness until the very end."
— Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., Sydney, Australia

"Cardinal Pell was undoubtedly the most impressive and most relevant Anglo-Saxon personality of the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century. A man of deep faith and integrity, an intellectual giant, and a fortress of Catholic doctrine. A man with the potential to become a great pope who, instead, was destined to a modern form of martyrdom. This important book tells his moving story and more."
— Michael Hesemann, Author, The Pope and the Holocaust

"Tess Livingstone tells the shocking story of Cardinal Pell's unjust imprisonment in a fact-filled narrative that leaves the reader gasping at the brazen evil of it all. Thank God he was vindicated in the end."
— Russell Shaw, Author, Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity