An adviser to Pope Francis and a prominent figure in Australia, Cardinal Pell went to prison on charges of abusing two boys in the 1990s, but a higher court later acquitted him.
Joseph Ratzinger was accused of mishandling cases when he was bishop of Munich, but as pope he was credited with forcing the Catholic Church to face a scourge long ignored.
Even after his resignation as pope, traditionalists invoked Benedict’s name and sought to draw him into internecine ideological wars. Now he is gone.