ARLINGTON (VA)
USA Today
February 26, 2019
By Lindsay Schnell
The Catholic Church continues to find itself in crisis.
Just days after Pope Francis wrapped up the first-ever Vatican summit on sex abuse –where more than 175 bishops from around the world discussed the clergy sex abuse scandal and how better to respond to victims – the church again drew negative headlines with the news that Australian Cardinal George Pell had been convicted of molestation.
Here are five major players taken down by the scandal.
Cardinal George Pell
Pell, the pope’s top financial adviser, was convicted this week of molesting two 13-year-old choir boys in late 1996. The church’s third-most-powerful official, Pell, now 77, is the most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with child sex abuse. Right before the alleged abuse took place, Pell had been named the highest-ranking Catholic in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city.
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