Zero Tolerance | Australian cardinal takes leave from Vatican after sex assault charges

Cardinal George Pell meets the media, at the Vatican yesterday

Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial chief yesterday to fight criminal charges in his native Australia that alleged he committed sexual assault years ago.

Pell forcefully denied the accusations, denounced what he called a “relentless character assassination” in the media and said he would return to Australia to clear his name.

“I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me,” he said in an appearance at the Vatican press office.

Pell, 76, is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be charged in the church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal, and the developments pose a new and serious obstacle for Francis in his promised “zero tolerance” policy.

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton announced the charges Thursday, saying police had ordered Pell to appear in court July 18 to face multiple counts of “historical sexual assault offenses,” meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago.

There are multiple complainants against Pell, Patton said, but he gave no other details.

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

More recently, however, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation, with Victoria detectives interviewing him in the Vatican last year.

It is unclear what allegations the charges announced yesterday relate to, but two men, now in their 40s, previously have said Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.

Patton said in Melbourne that none of the allegations against Pell has been tested in any court, adding: “Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process.”

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the Holy See had learned with “regret” of the charges and that the work of Pell’s office would continue in his absence, albeit only its “ordinary” affairs.

In a statement to reporters while sitting beside Pell, Burke said the Vatican respected Australia’s justice system but recalled that the cardinal had “openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable” acts of sexual abuse against minors.

He noted that Pell had cooperated with Australia’s Royal Commission investigation into sex abuse and that as a bishop in Australia, he worked to protect children and compensate victims.

“The Holy Father, who has appreciated Cardinal Pell’s honesty during his three years of work in the Roman Curia, is grateful for his collaboration,” Burke added.

Pell’s leave takes effect immediately and he will not participate in any public liturgical events while it is in place, the Vatican said.

The cardinal said he intends to eventually return to Rome to resume his work as prefect of the Vatican’s economy ministry.

The charges were announced on a major Catholic feast day, when many of the world’s cardinals were already in Rome for a ceremony to elevate five new cardinals. As Pell spoke to reporters, preparations were underway in St. Peter’s Square for a Mass that Pell had been expected to join, but he stood down after the charges were announced. Nicole Winfield & Kristen Gelineau, Vatican City, AP