A top aide to Pope accused in sex abuse case

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis suffered a major blow Thursday when his top financial adviser, Cardinal George Pell, was charged in his native Australia with multiple counts of sexual assault from years ago, bringing a criminal case in the long-running abuse scandal inside the frescoed walls of the Vatican for the first time.

Pell, 76, the highest-ranking Vatican official ever implicated in the scandal, forcefully denied the accusations and took an immediate leave of absence as Vatican finance czar to return to Australia to defend himself.

“The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me,” Pell told reporters in the Vatican press office. “News of these charges strengthens my resolve, and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name.”

The case creates a thorny image problem for the Pope, who has already suffered several credibility setbacks in his promised “zero tolerance” policy about sex abuse in the worldwide scandal. In 2014, Francis won cautious praise when he created a commission of outside experts to advise the church about “best practices” to fight abuse and protect children. But the commission lost much of its credibility after two members who were survivors of abuse left in frustration. Francis also scrapped the commission’s signature proposal — a tribunal to hear cases of bishops who covered up for abuse — after Vatican officials objected.

Francis didn’t force Pell to resign. He will wait for Australian justice to run its course before making a judgment himself.

The charges were announced in Melbourne by Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton, who said Pell — Australia’s senior Catholic — was ordered to appear in court July 18 to face multiple counts of “historical sexual assault offences” — meaning offences that occurred some time ago. Patton said there are multiple complainants against Pell, but he gave no other details.

For years Pell faced allegations he mishandled cases of clergy abuse as archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney.

It is unclear what allegations the charges announced Thursday relate to, but two men, now in their 40s, have said Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.

Last year, Pell testified to the commission that the church had made “enormous mistakes” in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests. He conceded that he, too, had erred by often believing the priests over victims who alleged abuse. He vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued church abuse victims in his hometown of Ballarat.