Cardinal George Pell is on his way to Rome to return to the Vatican for the first time since being cleared of child sexual abuse charges.
Pell was spotted wearing a full-face protective shield in a Sydney Airport lounge moments before boarding a 16-hour Qatar Airways flight.
He appeared to be travelling alone in the airport after securing the last flight out of Sydney.
9News understands NSW Police officers managed to transport Pell into the airport through a different entrance to the one used by the public.
The 79-year-old is returning here to the Holy See for the first time in three years since returning to Australia to fight child sexual abuse allegations.
His arrival comes in the middle of a financial storm for the Vatican after Pope Francis sacked a Cardinal over embezzlement claims earlier this week.
Before his lengthy battle in court, Pell was employed as Pope Francis' Vatican finance minister, raising suspicions he may be returning to a job.
Pell was sacked after his initial conviction in 2019.
The 79-year-old was once regarded as the third highest-ranking Vatican official and was attempting to combat the Holy See's financial struggles when he returned to Australia in 2017 to clear himself of decades-old allegations of child sex abuse.
Instead, he became the most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse crimes.
He served more than a year in jail before the High Court acquitted him in April this year of molesting two choir boys in the late 1990s when he was archbishop of Melbourne.
Vatican experts say it is unlikely that Pell will return to his previous position given that next year he turns 80 years old.
The Cardinal's return to Rome comes just days after Pope Francis fired one of Pell's most fierce opponents in the Vatican, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, amid an ongoing financial scandal.
In response, Pell "thanks and congratulated" the Pontiff for the move.
"I hope the cleaning of the stables continues in both the Vatican and Victoria," Pell said.
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 euros ($165,284).
Becciu, the former second-in-command in the Vatican's secretariat of state, denied any wrongdoing.
The Cardinal's name had previously been caught up in a whirlwind financial scandal involving the Holy See's investment in a London real estate venture.
Reported with The Associated Press and CNN.
