Silent but defiant, Cardinal George Pell yesterday made his first court appearance in Australia on charges of sexual abuse, vowing through his lawyer to fight the allegations that have rocked Rome and threatened the pope’s image as a crusader against abusive clergy.
Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis’ top financial adviser, is accused of sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria, making him the most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis.
Details of the charges have yet to be released to the public, although police have described them as “historical” sexual assault offenses — meaning crimes that occurred years ago.
Photo: EPA
Pell has not yet entered a plea, but his lawyer yesterday told the court that the 76-year-old cardinal plans to formally plead not guilty at a future court date.
“For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has,” lawyer Robert Richter told the court.
Pell entered the small courtroom dressed in a black suit, face devoid of expression as he took a seat behind his legal team.
He said nothing during the hearing, or to the hordes of journalists who swarmed around him as he left the courthouse.
The hearing itself lasted just minutes and was remarkably routine. Yet, the image of one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church standing before a cramped courtroom overflowing with reporters and spectators was anything but.
With its pedestrian setting of bland white-and-wood-paneled walls and gray carpet, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court could scarcely have been further in both geography and atmosphere from the ornate and hallowed halls of the Vatican.
Although many clerics have faced allegations of sex abuse in recent years, Pell is by far the highest-ranking church official ever charged, and his case has shaken the Vatican.
After years of alleged cover-ups and silence from the church over its pedophilia scandal, abuse survivors and their advocates hailed the prosecution of Pell as a monumental shift in the way society is responding to the crisis.
“The world is watching,” said Cathy Kezelman, president of the Blue Knot Foundation, an Australian victims’ advocacy group.
“The sheer fact that these allegations are proceeding to prosecution attests to a major societal shift whereby bastions of power and hierarchical structures, previously unassailable, are being brought to justice and account,” she added.
The case puts Pell and the pope in potentially perilous territory.
For Pell, the charges are a threat to his freedom, his reputation and his career.
For Pope Francis, they are a threat to his credibility, given he famously promised a “zero tolerance” policy for sex abuse in the church.
The cardinal is next expected in court on Oct. 6.
Anne Barrett Doyle of BishopAccountability.org, an archive of clerical sex abuse documents, said in a statement that while yesterday’s hearing was procedural, its impact would be felt across the world.
“Whatever the outcome of the case against Pell, his presence today in a secular courtroom marks the victory of transparency over secrecy, and of the rule of law over the Vatican’s failed strategy of containment,” she said.
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