Cardinal George Pell, Australia's most senior Catholic and the third-ranking official in the Vatican, said on Thursday he was innocent of charges of sexual abuse in his native Australia
“I am looking forward finally to having my day in court. I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false.”
Cardinal Pell (76) told a hastily called news conference that the pontiff had given him leave of absence to return there to defend himself.
The charges were served on Cardinal Pell’s legal representatives in Melbourne on Thursday and they have been lodged also at Melbourne magistrates court. He has been ordered to appear at the court on July 18th.
“Cardinal Pell is facing multiple charges, and there are multiple complainants,” Victoria police’s deputy commissioner Shane Patton said. The charges were “historical sexual assault offences”.
Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, said, while the Holy See had respect for the Australian justice system, it noted that Cardinal Pell had co-operated with investigations in the past.
It is so far unclear just what allegations Cardinal Pell has been charged with.
Allegations
Detectives from Victoria police’s Sano taskforce, established to investigate allegations that emerged during a parliamentary inquiry in Victoria and the later royal commission, interviewed the cardinal in Rome in October about allegations against him.
Last year, citing ill health, he declined to return to Australia to give evidence to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in person last year and instead gave evidence by videolink from Rome.
The royal commission, ordered by then-Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2012 and formed in 2013, is due to deliver its final report by December 15th.
In February, the Australian Senate called on the cardinal to return home “to assist the Victorian police and office of public prosecutions with their investigation into these matters”.
Cardinal Pell dismissed the parliamentary resolution as “an interference on the part of the senate in the due process of the Victoria police investigation”.
The cardinal is a former archbishop of Sydney and Melbourne. Since 2014 he has been prefect of the secretariat for the economy - the Vatican’s treasurer. He was ordained in Rome in 1966.
The news, which broke in the middle of the night in Rome, represents the biggest crisis of Pope Francis’s papacy. The Vatican declined to comment immediately on the news, but inside the Vatican questions were swirling about how Francis would respond to the stunning charges and whether his longstanding support of Cardinal Pell, despite his ideological differences with the staunchly conservative Australian, would tarnish his own reputation.
The pope has historically been loath to respond to legally unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse against senior clerics. The fact that legal charges have been filed means his support for the cardinal will now be heavily scrutinised and the case will be seen as a test of whether the pope, who has claimed that the church ought to have zero tolerance for sexual offenders, will be willing to cast out one of the most powerful officials in the Vatican.
When Pope Francis was asked about allegations against Cardinal Pell last year, he told reporters: "It's true, there is a doubt. We have to wait for justice and not first make a mediatic judgment – a judgment of gossip – because that won't help. Once justice has spoken, I will speak."
Mr Patton told the media conference: “During the course of the investigation in relation to Cardinal Pell, there has been a lot of reporting in the media and speculation about the process that has been involved in the investigation and also the charging.
Historical sex offences
“For clarity, I want to be perfectly clear, the process and procedures that are being followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offences whenever we investigate them.
“The fact that he has been charged on summons, we have used advice from the office of public prosecutions and also we have engaged with his legal representatives is common and standard practice. There has been no change in any procedures whatsoever. Advice was received and sought from the office of public prosecutions, however ultimately, the choice to charge Cardinal Pell was one that was made by Victoria police.
“Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process and so therefore, it is important that the process is allowed to run its natural course.”
Mr Patton said as the matter was now due before the court, police would be making no further comment.
Victoria’s director of public prosecutions, John Champion, released a statement saying he would be involved in “conducting these criminal proceedings”.
“I will be required to do so in a manner that is fair and just to all parties, including the alleged offender,” he said.
Guardian service