Pell heads to Australia to face allegations
Cardinal George Pell, an influential Vatican prelate tapped to sort out the Catholic Church’s financial mess, is taking a leave of absence to fight a slate of sexual abuse-related allegations.
“I am looking forward finally to having my day in court,” Pell said yesterday, denouncing leaks and “relentless character assassination” related to the case. Pell has been ordered to appear in an Australian court July 18 to face multiple counts of “historical sexual assault offenses.”
“I am innocent of these charges,” Pell said. “They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.
“News of these charges strengthens my resolve and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name and then return here back to Rome to work,” Pell said.
The charges, filed in Melbourne against the 76-year-old cardinal, make Pell the highest-ranking Vatican official ensnared in the Catholic Church’s decades-old sex abuse scandals.
Boston College theology professor Thomas Groome told the Herald the charges against Pell, though concerning, indicate the church may have finally parted with the era of “cover-ups.”
“It’s a sign to me that the coverups are over,” Groome said. “There is no room to hide anymore in the Catholic Church no matter how high up you are.”
The case is bound to create headaches for Pope Francis as well as Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, tapped in 2014 to lead a Vatican panel on the protection of minors. That commission has been criticized for taking little action to address long-standing problems in the church, and its two abuse survivors have cut ties with it out of frustration.
Marie Collins, an Irish-born survivor who resigned from the panel in March, said the “law should take its course” in Pell’s case.
But, she added, “The fact that Cardinal Pell was appointed to a very senior post in the Vatican rather than having to face any sanction for his mishandling of abuse cases was a slap in the face to all those he had let down so badly.”