AUSTRALIA
Times
Sharon Verghis / Sydney
Jul 11, 2017
The Catholic Church, long damaged by sex abuse scandals, is facing a fresh crisis following the laying of charges of child sex abuse against one of its most senior clerics, the Australian cardinal George Pell.
The 76-year-old Pell, who as the Church’s treasurer is the most senior Vatican figure to be charged with sexual abuse, returned home to Australia from the Vatican early Monday, where he was met at Sydney airport by police. He is due in a Melbourne magistrates court on July 26 for the hearing of charges that he has strenuously denied.
“I have been completely consistent and clear in my total rejection of these allegations,” he has stated. “News of these charges strengthens my resolve, and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name.”
Pell’s return has inspired mixed feelings among the Catholic faithful. On a crisp winter Sunday in Sydney, many gathered for the 9:00 a.m. Holy Solemn mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. It was Cardinal Pell’s seat of power when he was the eighth Archbishop of Sydney, and before he left for Rome in 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him to head the Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican.
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