Pope backs Australian cardinal in sex abuse case

In a strongly supportive statement, the Vatican said George Pell’s staff would continue his work in his absence and noted the pope’s respect for the Australian’s “honesty” and “energetic dedication” to his work on Church financial reform.

Australian Cardinal George Pell makes a statement at the Holy See Press Office, Vatican city on June 29, 2017 after being charged with historical sex offences in a case that has rocked the church. Alberto Pizzoli / AFP
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In a strongly supportive statement, the Vatican said Pell’s staff would continue his work in his absence and noted the pope’s respect for the Australian’s “honesty” and “energetic dedication” to his work on Church financial reform.

VATICAN CITY // Cardinal George Pell said he is taking leave from the Vatican to return to Australia to contest sexual assault charges after being given strong backing from Pope Francis.

Hours after becoming the highest-profile Catholic cleric to face such charges, the Vatican finance chief on Thursday said he had been a target of “relentless character assassination” and promised to clear his name and return to work. The pope has not asked him to resign.

“I am looking forward finally to having my day in court. I am innocent of these charges,” the 76-year-old said. “They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”

Cardinal Pell, who is unofficially considered the number three in the Vatican hierarchy, said he had been in close contact with Francis.

In a supportive statement, the Vatican said Cardinal Pell’s staff would continue his work in his absence and noted the pope’s respect for the Australian’s “honesty” and “energetic dedication” to his work on church financial reform.

“The holy see expresses its respect for the Australian justice system that will have to decide the merits of the questions raised,” the Vatican said. “At the same time, it is important to recall that Cardinal Pell has openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse committed against minors; has cooperated in the past with Australian authorities ... has supported the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors; and finally, as a diocesan bishop in Australia, has introduced systems and procedures both for the protection of minors and to provide assistance to victims of abuse.”

The tone of the statement echoed Francis’s comment last year that Cardinal Pell, one of his closest advisers, should not be subject to “a media verdict, a verdict based on gossip”.

Police in Victoria state announced earlier that Cardinal Pell had been charged with “historical sexual assault offences” and ordered him to appear in a Melbourne court on July 18.

Deputy commissioner Shane Patton said there were “multiple complainants” but did not give further details of the charges.

A lawyer representing two unidentified men who had made abuse claims against Cardinal Pell said they were “over the moon” about the charges.

"It's been very difficult for them to stick their neck out," the lawyer, Ingrid Irwin, told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper. "To come out against someone who is second to God, in some people's minds, has caused all sorts of problems for them."

The repercussions for the church could be significant, said Brian Coyne, the editor of the Australian online forum Catholica.

“This is the most senior person in the church who has ever been charged and the implications are both huge for the future of the Catholic Church in this country and internationally,” Mr Coyne said.

Snap, a US-based network of survivors of clerical abuse, praised the action taken by the Australian authorities.

“We hope it will inspire other countries to follow in their footsteps,” spokeswoman Joelle Casteix said. “Sexual abuse thrives when it is allowed to flourish in secrecy.”

The announcement coincided with the final stages of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional paedophilia.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.

Cardinal Pell has appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice on video, during which he admitted that he “mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria in the 1970s.

The charges against Cardinal Pell stem from investigations by a Victoria police task force into allegations resulting from the royal commission and from a state parliamentary inquiry.

In February, the commission said that seven per cent of Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in Australia between 1950 and 2010 but that the allegations were never investigated.

The commission found that 4,444 alleged incidents of paedophilia were reported to church authorities and, in some dioceses, more than 15 percent of priests were perpetrators.

Cardinal Pell was ordained in Rome in 1966 and returned to Australia in 1971, becoming the country’s most senior Catholic cleric.

He was accused of sex abuse when he was the Archbishop of Sydney in 2002 but was cleared of wrongdoing.

* Agence France-Presse