Cardinal takes leave after sex assault charges
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial chief Thursday to fight criminal charges in his native Australia that alleged he committed sexual assault years ago.
Pell forcefully denied the accusations, denounced what he called a “relentless character assassination” in the media and said he would return to Australia to clear his name.
“I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me,” he said in an appearance at the Vatican press office.
Pell, 76, is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be charged in the church’s longrunning sexual abuse scandal, and the developments pose a new and serious obstacle for Francis in his promised “zero tolerance” policy.
Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton announced the charges Thursday, saying police had ordered Pell to appear in court July 18 to face multiple counts of “historical sexual assault offenses,” meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago.
There are multiple complainants against Pell, Patton said, but he gave no other details.
The cardinal has faced allegations for years that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney.
More recently, however, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation, with Victoria detectives interviewing him in the Vatican last year.
It is unclear what allegations the charges announced Thursday relate to, but two men, now in their 40s, previously have said Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.
Patton said in Melbourne that none of the allegations against Pell has been tested in any court, adding: “Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process.”
Asked last year about the accusations against Pell, Francis said he would wait for Australian justice to take its course before commenting.