Vatican Finance Chief Investigated for Child Sexual Abuse

(Photo Courtesy: Reuters)

George Pell, the Vatican finance chief, is under investigation by the Australian police over child sexual abuse allegations, as reported by the national broadcaster. The leading Catholic cleric dismissed these claims, calling them ‘completely untrue’.

The new allegations being investigated cover events that happened up to two decades ago. Only two months ago, the Cardinal admitted that he “mucked up” while dealing with paedophile priests.

The ABC said it had obtained eight police statements from complainants, witnesses and family members helping the police investigation. The reports include claims that in the late 1970’s, Pell touched two boys sexually in a pool.

Pell was also accused of sexual abuse while he was the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney in 2002, when a man came forth to say that he was assaulted when he was 12 years old and when George Pell was a trainee priest.

Claims that I have sexually abused anyone in any place at any time in my life are totally untrue and completely wrong.

Pell in a statement to the ABC

The National Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is ongoing in Australia and was established after a decade of growing pressure to investigate widespread allegations of paedophilia, including those occuring in places of worship, orphanages, schools etc.

Pell previously told the commission he was not aware of offences that had occurred in Victoria, where paedophile priests abused dozens of children in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the Royal Commission only investigates matters of institution sexual abuse and refers matters of the clergy to the Police.

(With inputs from PTI)