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| File Photo: ENB Poster George Pell |
Cardinal George Pell: Vatican official charged with multiple sexual offences
Thursday 29 June 2017
Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic and the third-ranking official in the Vatican, has been charged with multiple sexual offences by police.
The charges were served on 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 26 July.
“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”.
In a statement released by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney 90 minutes after the charges were announced, Pell announced he would “return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name”.
Pell is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal.
Pell’s statement, issued at 4.30am Rome time, said: “Although it is still in the early hours of the morning in Rome, Cardinal George Pell has been informed of the decision and action of Victoria police. He has again strenuously denied all allegations.
“Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements.
“He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously.”
It is so far unclear just what allegations Pell has been charged with. Pell was due to make a further statement in Rome later on Thursday.
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 Pell in Rome in October about allegations against him.
Last year, citing ill health, Pell 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 15 December.
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”.
Pell dismissed the parliamentary resolution as “an interference on the part of the Sko t 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 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.”
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.
“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.”
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.
The Guardian UK
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George Pell charged with sexual offences: a timeline of the cardinal's life
1941 Born in Ballarat, Victoria on 8 June. He was later educated at Loreto convent and St Patrick’s College in Ballarat.
1960 Pell begins studying for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College in Werribee.
1963 Continues studies at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.
1966 Ordained a Catholic priest in the Vatican. Further studies at Urbaniana University Rome and then at Oxford follow, where he is awarded a doctorate of philosophy in church history.
1972 Pell returns to Ballarat as an assistant parish priest.
1973-1984 Episcopal vicar for education in diocese of Ballarat; founding member of Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.
1981-1984 Principal of Institute of Catholic Education (now merged with Australian Catholic University).
1984 Administrator of Bungaree parish.
1987 Auxiliary bishop of Melbourne serving under Archbishop Frank Little.
1990 Member of the church’s powerful congregation for the doctrine of the faith, a position he would hold until 2000.
June 1996 Appointed archbishop of Melbourne by Pope John Paul II.
October 1996 Announces Melbourne Response protocol for handling child sexual abuse complaints in Melbourne archdiocese. It offers support and counselling to victims of sexual abuse but caps compensation payments.
March 2001 Appointed archbishop of Sydney by Pope John Paul II. In Sydney Pell oversees the Catholic church’s widely condemned Towards Healing program. Pell says the program is intended to deal with child sexual abuses cases within the church in a sensitive manner, expedite compensation and avoid long litigation.
2003 Pope John Paul II makes Pell one of 31 new cardinals. He is also awarded the Centenary Medal by Australian government.
2005 Pell takes part in papal conclave that selects Pope Benedict XVI. He is also appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.
2006 Pell leads Sydney’s successful bid to host 2008 World Youth Day.
2007 Appointed to council of cardinals on organisational and economic problems of the Holy See.
2013 Appointed by Pope Francis to group of eight cardinals to advise on government of the universal church and study plan for revising apostolic constitution of Roman Curia.
2013 Pell takes part in the papal conclave that elects Pope Francis.
2013 Gives evidence to Victorian parliamentary inquiry into handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations in Melbourne.
2014 Appointed the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, making him effectively the Vatican’s treasurer and widely reported to be the third most senior figure in the church hierarchy.
March 2014 Gives evidence to royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Sydney.
August 2014 Second royal commission appearance via videolink from the Vatican, to Melbourne hearing on the Melbourne Response.
February-March 2016 Third royal commission appearance, via videolink from Rome hotel conference room to Sydney; hearing on church’s handling of child abuse allegations in Ballarat diocese and Melbourne archdiocese.
29 June 2017 Charged with multiple, historical child sex offences, set to appear in the Melbourne magistrates’ court on 18 July. Pell strongly denies the allegations.
With Australian Associated Press
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