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Cardinal George Pell of Australia is the highest- ranking Vatican official (the Vatican’s Treasurer, hand-picked by Pope Francis) to stand trial on multiple charges that he sexually abused minors in his care dating back to the 1970s.
Pell was officially charged in 2017, and in May of
2018 appeared in court before Melbourne Magistrate Belinda Wallington, at which time he pleaded not guilty to alleged historic sexual abuse. These alleged offenses occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s, starting in the Melbourne area where he was a priest, and later, after he became the archbishop.
THE SECOND BIGGEST STORY HERE IS THE VATICAN’S SILENCE AS ONE OF ITS OWN FACES TRIAL FOR SEXUAL ABUSE
The fact that the Holy See has not come forward
with protest that a prince of the church will stand
trial before a civil magistrate is historically unheard
of. It could very well be the turning point in the
long chronicle of compelling accountability by
church leaders. This silence comes at the same time Pope Francis issued a personal apology for his own mishandling of clergy sex abuse allegations in Chile. Such a statement is not only unprecedented, but would have been unthinkable in an earlier era of the Catholic Church’s history. Pope Francis admitted, ‘grave error’ in his judgment, adding: “I confess this caused me pain and shame.” He also invited the victims to come before him in Rome so he may beg their forgiveness.
Australia’s most senior Catholic figure, Pell, in recent years has come under scrutiny for his actions as
archbishop by a government-authorized investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to allegations of the sexual abuse of children.
A report issued in late 2017 by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed that in Australia, 7% of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children over the past several decades. Cardinal Pell admitted in testimony to that commission that he had made mistakes by believing priests rather than those who had said they were abused. He testified then via
a video-link from the Vatican and vowed to help end the rash of suicides that has afflicted abuse victims and their families in his hometown of Ballarat.
Pell has been on a leave of absence from his high-level Vatican post and has returned to Australia to fight
the criminal charges filed against him. His committal hearing is believed to have been one of the longest ever in the Australian state of Victoria, of which the first 10 days were heard in closed-session as Pell’s accusers were questioned.
Not much more is known about the charges against Pell as lawyers for both the prosecution and the defense have been barred from sharing any details, however, reports suggest that the most serious matters relate to two accusers. One says the alleged sexual abuse took place in a Ballarat cinema in the 1970s when Pell was a priest, and the second victim alleges he was sexually assaulted at Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s, at which point Pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne.
SILENCE FROM THE VATICAN
Article by Connie Broussard
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