- Pope Francis has met with Cardinal George Pell.
- Pell was acquitted of child sex abuse charges.
- Pell still faces a civil suit.
Pope Francis met Monday with Australian Cardinal George Pell, who returned to Rome last month for the first time since being jailed - and then acquitted - on child sex abuse charges.
The Argentine pontiff, a fierce defender of the presumption of innocence, held a private audience with Pell, the Vatican said, without providing any further details.
But while a reunion between the head of the Roman Catholic Church and the man he once appointed as his trusted anti-corruption tsar had been seen as a certainty, it was not clear that Pell is to be entrusted with a new Vatican role.
The cardinal had been given extended leave in 2017 to return to Australia and clear his name of accusations he molested two choirboys in the 1990s.
Pell was convicted in December 2018 of sexually abusing the choirboys when he was the archbishop of Melbourne.
Civil lawsuit
He strenuously denied the charges and the High Court in Australia overturned his conviction in April this year after hearing his second appeal.
The former Vatican treasurer had in the meantime spent more than a year in prison.
Pell, 79, returned to Rome on 30 September. Although he was supposed to observe a 14-day isolation period, the Australian "prince of the church" was photographed recently at a café terrace near the Vatican.
The cardinal is still facing a civil suit brought by the father of one choirboy who died in 2014.
A report released in May after a top-level Australian inquiry said Pell was aware of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Australia as far back as the 1970s and failed to seek the removal of accused priests.
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