IN the words of Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, the late Cardinal George Pell was "without doubt Australia's most prominent ever churchman" - an accolade that was previously reserved for Archbishop Daniel Mannix, the all-powerful Bishop of Melbourne who held that title for 46 years until his death in 1963.
Cardinal Pell's career in the church was indeed a stellar one, and his latter-day work in Rome, tackling corruption in the Vatican and its banking system, would ordinarily be seen as exemplary and far-reaching, and all the more outstanding given the Australian's status - in Roman eyes - as an outsider from the dominions.
