An Australian court has found Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican treasurer and a former top adviser to Pope Francis, guilty on five charges of child sexual offences committed more than two decades ago against 13-year-old boys.

The verdict was made public on Tuesday following the lifting of a court suppression order on the trial, after a second abuse case against Pell was dropped by the prosecution.

A jury in the Country Court of Victoria in Melbourne found Pell guilty on December 11 last year following a four-week trial.

Pell becomes the most senior Catholic clergyman worldwide to be convicted for child sex offences. He had pleaded not guilty to all five charges.

He was convicted of five sexual offences committed against the 13-year-old choir boys 22 years earlier in the priests' sacristy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne, where Pell was archbishop. One of the two victims died in 2014.

Each of the five offences carries a maximum 10 years in jail. Pell's lawyers have filed an appeal against the verdict on three grounds, which if successful could lead to a retrial.

Pell, who remains on bail, left the court on Tuesday without speaking to reporters, who virtually mobbed him as he walked from the courthouse steps to a waiting car. He is due to return to court on Wednesday for the start of his sentencing hearing.