Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell yesterday became the highest-ranking Catholic ever to be sent to trial over historic sex offenses, with the elderly priest vowing to fight the charges.
The 76-year-old was impassive throughout the hearing in Melbourne that ordered him to face a jury on “multiple” charges, although half of the allegations against him, including some of the most serious, were thrown out.
“Not guilty,” the top aide to Pope Francis said loudly and without hesitation when asked his plea, a stance he has taken since first being charged last year.
Photo: AFP
Melbourne Magistrate Belinda Wallington said she was “satisfied” there was enough evidence for a conviction on “multiple” charges with a directions hearing due today to discuss a trial date.
Pell, who entered the court surrounded by a large police presence, was released on bail on the condition he does not leave Australia.
He has already handed in his passport, the court heard.
The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has been on leave from the Vatican, returning to Australia to fight the allegations which relate to incidents that allegedly occurred long ago.
“Cardinal George Pell has at all times fully cooperated with Victoria Police, and always and steadfastly maintained his innocence,” said a statement issued through the Archdiocese of Sydney and attributed to Pell. “He has voluntarily returned to Australia to meet these accusations. He will defend the remaining charges.”
The exact details and nature of the claims remain confidential, other than they involve “multiple complainants,” but some of the alleged offending was at a swimming pool in Ballarat, Victoria, in the 1970s and at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s, the court heard.
In a win for him, some of the most serious allegations were dismissed due to inconsistencies in the evidence, including claims of offending at a cinema in Ballarat during a screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Lisa Flynn, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of abuse survivors in civil litigation claims in Australia, said the ruling proved no one was above the law.
“The charging of Pell for these alleged crimes reinforces that people should be and are treated equally in the eyes of the law,” Flynn said. “This is a promising step forward for victims of sexual assault.”
Pell’s case has coincided with an Australian national inquiry into child sexual abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional pedophilia.
The commission spoke to thousands of victims and heard claims of abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.
Pell appeared before it three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome, over the Catholic Church’s handling of complaints against pedophile priests.
Australia’s Catholic leaders have previously spoken out in support of him, describing Pell as a “thoroughly decent man.”
The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne yesterday said Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart would be making no comment, but it added that “Archbishop Hart expressed his confidence in the judicial system in Australia and said that justice must now take its course.”
The Catholic Church globally has been plagued by allegations of sex abuse among priests, with the scandals haunting the papacy of Pope Francis, who in February announced the Vatican was reviving its anti-pedophile panel.
It followed a trip to Chile in January that was seen as a resounding failure after he defended a bishop accused of covering up the crimes of a pedophile priest.
Pell was one of the pope’s most trusted aides, handpicked by him in 2014 to make the church’s finances more transparent.
It cemented a meteoric rise by the Australian, who was Archbishop of Melbourne and then Sydney before being named to the Vatican’s powerful College of Cardinals at the behest of Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number