Pope Francis has met with Cardinal George Pell, warmly welcoming him for a private audience in the Apostolic Palace after the cardinal's sex abuse conviction and acquittal in Australia.
The Vatican released a brief video clip of the meeting, a clear sign both the pontiff and Cardinal Pell wanted the reception to be seen widely.
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 expected, it was not clear that Cardinal Pell is to be entrusted with a new Vatican role.
In the video, Pope Francis is heard saying "Good to see you" and "more than a year" - an apparent reference to the time Cardinal Pell spent in prison.
The meeting "went very well!" a chipper Cardinal Pell said, according to Salvatore Cernuzio, the Stampa daily's Vaticanist.
Neither man was wearing a protective mask, despite the surge in coronavirus infections in the Lazio region surrounding the Vatican, and despite the Vatican's own admission on Monday that four Swiss Guards had tested positive.
Cardinal Pell returned to Rome on 30 September for the first time since 2017 to find a swirling financial corruption scandal implicating a half-dozen Holy See employees including one of his Vatican nemeses, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
George Pell arrives at Rome's international airport in Fiumicino, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Source: AP
Senior officials said he had not been summoned back by Pope Francis, but had returned on his own volition.
Cardinal Pell, brought in by Pope Francis in 2014 to bring accountability and transparency to the Vatican's opaque finances, was convicted but ultimately absolved by Australia's High Court of allegations he molested two choirboys in St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne while he was archbishop in the 1990s.
He has long maintained his innocence and suggested, without evidence, that his prosecution was linked to his efforts to clean up the Vatican's finances.
For seven years, Cardinal Becciu largely controlled the secretariat of state's multi-million-euro asset portfolio and donations from the faithful.
Pope Francis sacked Cardinal Becciu last month amid allegations he embezzled Holy See money.
Cardinal Becciu has denied wrongdoing.
