VATICAN HONCHO SEX RAP

Aussie cardinal hit

An Australian cardinal became the highest-ranking Vatican official to be charged in the church’s ongoing sexual-assault scandal on Thursday.

George Cardinal Pell, Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser, “is facing multiple charges, and there are multiple complainants,” said Shane Patton, deputy commissioner of Australia’s Victoria Police.

“It is important to note that none of the allegations that have been made against Cardinal Pell have, obviously, been tested in any court yet,” Patton said in Melbourne. “Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process.”

Pell (inset), 76, was ordered to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.

Pell, Australia’s senior Catholic Church official, faces multiple charges of “historical sexual assault offenses,” meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago.

Police gave no other details on the allegations, but two men, now in their 40s, have said that Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.

Pell has repeatedly denied all abuse charges leveled against him.

The Archdiocese of Sydney issued a statement Thursday saying Pell again “strenuously denied all allegations” and would return to Australia from the Vatican to clear his name. “He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously,” the statement said.

Last year during an Australian inquiry into clerical sex abuse, Pell claimed he was too ill to return home and testified via video link.

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney.

But more recently, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sexabuse investigation, with Victoria detectives flying to the Vatican last year to interview the cardinal.

The charges are a new and serious blow to Pope Francis, who has already suffered several credibility setbacks in his promised “zero tolerance” policy on sex abuse.

When the pope was asked last year about the accusations against Pell, he said he wanted to wait for Australian justice to take its course before judging.