ROME — (CNN) Cardinal George Pell, a senior adviser to Pope Francis, is taking leave from the Vatican to fight historical sexual assault charges in his home country of Australia.
The case is the latest black mark on the Catholic Church, which has been reeling from sexual abuse scandals across several countries that date back decades.
Pell said he had been the victim of “relentless character assassinations.”
“I’m innocent of these charges, they are false,” Pell said in a press conference from Rome early Thursday. “The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”
Australian police have not released a detailed list of charges and didn’t disclose any information about alleged victims, saying only there were “multiple complainants.”
“All along, I have been completely consistent and clear in my total rejection of these allegations. News of these charges strengthens my resolve and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name,” Pell said.
“I’m looking forward finally to having my day in court.”
Police denied Pell was receiving special treatment.
“I want to be perfectly clear — the process and the procedures that have been followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offenses whenever we investigate them,” Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton said at a news conference.
“Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else in this investigation.”
In 2013, Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, was named as one of eight cardinals tasked with investigating ways to reform the Catholic Church.
July hearing
Sex abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church has been documented in the United States, Ireland, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.
Pell is likely the highest-ranking Catholic official charged in connection with sex abuse in recent years.
“His role is to oversee the budgeting processes and financial procedures of the Vatican,” CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen said.
“If it’s analogous to the US government, he would basically be the secretary of the treasury.”
Pell has previously denied covering up abuse committed by priests when he served as the Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. But he acknowledged his predecessor, Archbishop Frank Little, now deceased, had destroyed documents to protect priests.
The office of Pell’s successor in Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart, released a statement saying he believes Pell is entitled to a fair trial.
“Cardinal Pell has been a friend and brother priest of Archbishop Hart for more than 50 years,” the statement said. “It is a matter of public record that Cardinal Pell addressed the evil of sexual abuse in the Church on becoming Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.”
Pell will be required to appear in the Melbourne Magistrate’s court on July 18 for a filing hearing, when a full charge list is expected to be released. He is facing multiple charges and there are multiple complainants relating to those charges, police said.
SNAP, the US-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, lauded the decision in a statement. “We are always grateful and encouraged when law enforcement works hard to gather evidence to build a case against a powerful and influential man,” the statement said.
Ramifications for Pope?
The announcement is likely to deal a serious blow to the reputation of the Catholic Church in Australia, which has seen its membership shrink in recent years. The 2016 census results, released Tuesday, showed that Catholics no longer make up the top religious affiliation in Australia.
The charges could also have ramifications for Pope Francis, who counts Cardinal Pell among his top advisers.
“It’s not every day that a senior Vatican official is facing criminal charges,” Allen said. “It’s going to cast a new spotlight on Pope Francis’ track record in dealing with the abuse crisis, which frankly I think most observers would tell you is kind of mixed.”
The Vatican issued a statement Thursday, praising the cardinal’s work in combating sex abuse — including cooperating with authorities and introducing systems in order to help protect and assist minors in Australia.
“The Holy See expresses its respect for the Australian justice system, which will have to decide the merits of the questions raised,” Vatican Press Officer Greg Burke said. “At the same time, it’s important to recall that Cardinal Pell has openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse against minors.”
When asked about the allegations last year, Pope Francis said he’d defer to the courts before making his own judgment.
“One mustn’t judge before justice judges,” Francis said, according to Vatican radio.
In 2015, Pope Francis created a church tribunal to judge bishops who fail to protect children from sexually abusive priests.
Royal Commission
The 2013 Royal Commission, a government inquiry into sex abuse in Australia, found that 7% of priests in Australia were accused of abusing children, from 1950 until 2015. At least 1,880 alleged perpetrators were identified and 4,444 victims came forward.
In the US, analysis of information on 110,000 priests who served the Church between 1950 and 2002 found that 4% of them had been accused of abuse.
Before the Australian Royal Commission, Pell was largely seen as indifferent to the scandal, according to Allen.
“In Australia, George Pell would be seen as kind of the leading symbol of the sex abuse problem. And that’s in part because he has said some things and done some things that victims and lawyers and advocacy groups have seen as insensitive and tone-deaf,” Allen said. “His defenders would have a different line, but that certainly has been the charge.”
Pell testified multiple times to the Royal Commission in 2013 and apologized for the abuse. He also acknowledged that cover-ups allowed pedophile priests to continue abusing children.
“The primary motivation would have been to respect the reputation of the church. There was a fear of scandal,” Pell said. ”Many in the church did not understand just what damage was being done to the victims. We understand that better now.”
Pell’s statements will likely be key in a trial.
“A lot of legal observers in Australia were telling me that they were skeptical that there would be enough to these accusations to sustain a criminal indictment,” Allen said.
“This Royal Commission, that the government poured God knows how much money into, I think was under intense pressure to get a scalp on the wall. And I’m quite sure that’s what Pell’s legal team and his defenders are going to be saying.”
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