Cardinal Pell joins Arrow in support of advances in adult stem cell research for leukaemia and related diseases

Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, commenced his role as Patron of Arrow on Friday, 9th November 2007.

Cardinal George Pell was born in Ballarat in 1941 and was educated in that city at Loreto Convent and St Patrick's College. He studied for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College, Werribee, and Propaganda Fide College, Rome, and was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Ballarat, St Peter's Basilica, Rome, in 1966.

In 1987 Cardinal Pell was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and in July 1996 Pope John Paul II appointed him seventh Metropolitan Archbishop of Melbourne. He was appointed the eighth Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney in 2001, and elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals in 2003.

Cardinal Pell holds a Licentiate in Theology from Urban University, Rome (1967), a Masters Degree in Education from Monash University, Melbourne (1982), and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Church History from the University of Oxford (1971). He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators, and was Visiting Scholar at Campion Hall, Oxford University, in 1979 and at St Edmund's College, Cambridge University, in 1983. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's in 2003.

Cardinal Pell was made a Companion in the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005 for service to the Catholic Church in Australia, and internationally, for raising debate on matters of an ethical and spiritual nature, to education, and to social justice.

Since 2001, Cardinal Pell has been a weekly columnist for Sydney's Sunday Telegraph. His other publications include: The Sisters of St Joseph in Swan Hill 1922-72 (1972), Catholicism in Australia (1988), Rerum Novarum: One Hundred Years Later (1992), Issues of Faith and Morals (OUP, 1996), Catholicism and the Architecture of Freedom (1999), and Be Not Afraid (2004), a collection homilies and writings from the last forty years. God and Caesar, a selection of Cardinal Pell's essays on religion, politics and society, was published by Catholic University of America Press and Connor Court Publishing in October 2007.

In earlier years Cardinal Pell was a keen sports coach in soccer, Aussie Rules and rowing. He is Vice Patron of the Richmond Football Club and a long term supporter and member of the Club since he signed to play with them in 1959.

In 2003 Cardinal Pell's commitment to the search for treatments for life-threatening illnesses led to the establishment of a grant from the Archdiocese of Sydney to support adult stem cell research. The first grant of $50,000 was won that year by Professor Alan Mackay-Sim of Griffith University for a project which was designed to see whether adult stem cells derived from the nose had therapeutic potential in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Professor Mackay-Sim was subsequently appointed Director of the National Adult Stem Cell Research Centre at Griffith University.

In 2005 a $100,000 grant was awarded to Dr Pritinder Kaur of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute for a project which was designed to investigate the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells derived from the skin in regenerating human skin after catastrophic burns.

In 2007 the $100,000 grant was won by an Adelaide-based research team, led by Associate Professor Stan Gronthos and Dr Simon Koblar, for a project to investigate the capacity of stem cells derived from human dental pulp tissue to differentiate into neuronal cells, and hence whether they have the potential to be used in treating people who have suffered strokes.