Cardinal to be tried over abuse allegations
SYDNEY: Cardinal George Pell was ordered by an Australian magistrate to face trial over sexual abuse allegations, a decision that may make him the most senior Roman Catholic prelate to be forced to defend himself in court over a scandal that has swept through Catholic communities around the world.
After being told in a courtroom that he would face trial, Pell was asked how he pleaded.
“Not guilty,” the 76-year-old answered.
Pell rose through the ranks of the church in Australia to become the archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney. Five years ago, he was appointed one of eight cardinals by Pope Francis to work out how to overhaul the administrative structures of the church, which are known as the Roman curia.
The following year, he was placed in charge of the Vatican’s economic affairs. He has taken a leave of absence for the court case.
After a month-long pre-trial hearing in which Pell was defended by one of Australia’s top criminal lawyers, the magistrate, Belinda Wallington, dismissed some of the more serious assault charges made against Pell by the Victoria state police force.
She ruled that other charges would go ahead: that in the 1970s Pell groped two boys’ genitals at a swimming pool in the regional city of Ballarat where he was born, and that he assaulted two choristers at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral when he was the city’s archbishop in the 1990s.
Because the allegations concern offences against children, most of the details have been legally suppressed and the court was closed to the public during part of the pre-trial hearing.
“Cardinal George Pell has at all times fully co-operated with Victoria police and always and steadfastly maintained his innocence,” a statement from his lawyers said. “He has voluntarily returned to Australia to meet these accusations. He will defend the remaining charges.”
Yesterday, the courtroom was packed. After the magistrate read the judgment and left the room, there was clapping from the public section of the court.