Priesthood
On 16 December 1966, Pell was ordained a priest by Cardinal Grégoire-Pierre Agagianian at St. Peter's Basilica. He received a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Urbaniana University in 1967, and continued his studies at the University of Oxford, where he earned a DPhil in church history in 1971. During his studies at Oxford, he also served as a chaplain to Catholic students at Eton College, where he celebrated the first Roman Catholic Mass since the English Reformation.
In 1971, he returned to Australia and was assigned to serve as an assistant priest in Swan Hill, where he remained for two years. He then served at a parish in Ballarat East from 1973 to 1983, becoming administrator of the parish of Bungaree in 1984. In 1982, he earned a Master of Education degree from Monash University in Melbourne. During his tenure in Ballarat East and Bungaree, he also served as Episcopal Vicar for Education (1973–84), director of the Aquinas campus of the Institute of Catholic Education (1974–84) and principal of the Institute of Catholic Education (1981–84). He was also editor of Light, the diocesan newspaper of Ballarat, from 1979 to 1984.
From 1985 to 1987, Pell served as seminary rector of his alma mater, Corpus Christi College.
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