Pell arrived at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Sydney wearing a blue face mask.

He waved briefly to reporters before getting into a waiting car without making any comments.

It wasn’t immediately clear how long Pell would remain in the Vatican or what his agenda might involve.

The trip is his first back to Rome after he took a leave of absence as Pope Francis’ finance minister in 2017 to face historic sexual abuse charges stemming from his time as the Archbishop of Melbourne.

Pell was sacked after his initial conviction in 2019.

Vatican experts say it is unlikely that Pell will return to his previous position given that next year he turns 80 years old.

Pell, who maintained his innocence throughout the trial, said after he was absolved by the High Court that he wanted to clean out his Vatican apartment but intended to make Sydney his home.

Pell arrived the same day that European anti-money laundering evaluators began a periodic visit to the Vatican after Pope Francis sacked one of Pell’s most fierce opponents in the Vatican, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, over embezzlement claims earlier this week.

Pell and Becciu had long clashed over the Australian’s efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to the Vatican’s balance sheets.

The Council of Europe’s Moneyval team will be checking the Vatican’s compliance with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

Vatican prosecutors last year opened a corruption investigation into the Holy See’s investment in a London real estate venture, but to date no one has been indicted.

The Vatican’s secretariat of state has sunk more than €350 million into the London venture, much of it donations from the faithful.

Tens of millions of dollars were paid in fees to Italian businessmen who acted as middlemen in the real estate deal.

Last week, Pope Francis fired Becciu, the cardinal who helped orchestrate the original deal.

Becciu said he was fired after Francis told him that documents from the Italian financial police alleged the 72-year-old cardinal had embezzled €100,000.

Becciu, the former second-in-command in the Vatican’s secretariat of state, denied any wrongdoing.