Melbourne, Australia (CNN) Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Vatican official to be convicted of sex abuse to date, has been sentenced to six years in prison for the "callous" assault of two choirboys in the late 1990s.

A former senior adviser to Pope Francis, Pell showed no reaction when Chief Judge Peter Kidd handed down his sentence in a hearing broadcast live worldwide on Wednesday from Victoria's County Court in central Melbourne.

Pell, 77, was found guilty of one count of sexual penetration of a child and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child last December after a secret five-week trial.

Reporting of the trial and verdict was suppressed by the court to avoid prejudicing a second trial, which crown prosecutors abandoned in February after the judge ruled some prosecution evidence couldn't be submitted.

On Wednesday, Judge Kidd said Pell's attack on the victims was "breathtakingly arrogant" adding that the cardinal had assaulted the boys with "callous indifference to the victims' distress."

But the judge said Pell was "not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church."

Judge Peter Kidd at the sentencing of George Pell: The defence submitted in both cases you were not acting rationally. I reject this. There is no evidence that supports that your mental state was impaired or diminished at the time.



MORE: https://t.co/ykweMeNddk #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/Z0JLmcFU1v — Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 12, 2019

Outside the court, survivors of Catholic sex abuse who had attended the hearing were divided on the sentence. Some felt justice had been done, while others thought the judge had been too lenient.

"Part of what went on today was just rot, absolutely rubbish," said a survivor known by the alias Michael Advocate, who watched the sentence on a live feed outside court, his head in his heads.

"It's just insulting to the victims and it's insulting to all the other survivors like myself," Advocate told CNN. "There's a disconnect between the sentence that is regularly handed out to the pedophile and the lifelong damage that is done to the victim."

Clerical sexual abuse survivor Michael listens live to Judge Peter Kidd pronouncing sentence on Cardinal George #Pell @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/o7RKPHDeLM — Dean Felton (@DeanFelton7) March 12, 2019

In a statement after the sentencing, the surviving victim said it was hard for him "to take comfort in this outcome."

"There is no rest for me," he said through his lawyer, Vivian Waller. "I'm doing my best to hold myself and my family together."

Until last month Pell held the role of Vatican treasurer, considered by many to be the third most senior position within the Roman Catholic church.

Pell's legal team has previously announced it will appeal his conviction on three grounds, including that the jury's verdict on all five charges was unreasonable, based on the evidence submitted. The Court of Appeal is due to hear submissions in early June.

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The sentencing

Pell has spent the past two weeks in custody and was brought into the court from the Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) via an internal entrance, avoiding rows of cameras set up outside the court in central Melbourne.

More than 150 people crammed into the courtroom, which had been fitted with extra seats to cope with the demand from those who wanted to be there in person to hear how he'd be punished.

Pell sat in the back of the courtroom, wearing a black shirt without his clerical collar. He was uncuffed, but surrounded by security officers.

The cardinal stared straight ahead as Judge Kidd delivered a detailed explanation of the crimes he had committed and the reasons for his sentence.

After mass one Sunday in the late 1990s, Judge Kidd recounted, Pell caught two choirboys drinking communion wine in the priest's sacristy and one by one forced them to engage in sex acts, despite their sobs and pleas for him to let them go.

The first choirboy told how he was forced to perform oral sex on the cardinal, who at the time was Archbishop of Melbourne and a revered figure within the Catholic Church.

The boy didn't tell anyone what had happened for years, before finally approaching Victoria Police in 2015, almost 20 years after the crime. His statement led to an investigation and a number of historical sex abuse charges being filed against the then-Vatican treasurer.

After his conviction, the Vatican launched its own investigation into Pell, which could lead to the cardinal losing his clerical status or being "defrocked," a severe punishment imposed by the Pope and not subject to appeal.

Cardinal George Pell arrives at Melbourne County Court on February 27, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia.

The victims

In his ruling, Judge Kidd was careful not to name the two victims, one of whom gave taped evidence against Pell on a video that was seen only by the jury during the trial. Under Australian law it's illegal to identify sex abuse victims or reveal information that could expose who they are.

The first victim has previously asked in a statement that he be left alone and given time to cope with the ongoing criminal process. "The process has been stressful and is not over yet," he said.

The second victim died of a heroin overdose a few years ago. The deceased victim's father said he was "disappointed" with the length of the sentence.

"(Pell) can rot in hell, and rot in prison. I just wished that it was longer, that's all I can say," he told CNN.

The choirboy's father had previously told CNN that his son had been an outgoing child who played sport and liked singing, a talent that earned him a scholarship to the prestigious boys' school and ultimately an invitation to sing in St. Patrick's Cathedral where the attack took place.

Around one year after the assault, he said his son was kicked out of the choir, lost his scholarship and started injecting heroin.

"He was trying to mask something that had happened to him. He was trying to cover up something that had happened to him, so heinous and so horrible," said his father, who is considering filing a civil case against the church.

Protesters gathered with signs outside the court during Pell's pre-sentencing hearing in February, 2019.

Pell's supporters

Pell's defense team had submitted 10 references that attested to Pell's good character. They included one from former Prime Minister John Howard who wrote that Pell, his friend for approximately 30 years, was a person of "high intelligence and exemplary character."

Howard said he was aware of Pell's conviction and pending appeal but that "none of these matters alter my opinion of the Cardinal."

Several of Pell's other high-profile friends in Australia have leaped to his defense, questioning the jury's verdict and predicting the cardinal would be exonerated on appeal.

The depiction of Pell as a man wronged has infuriated survivors of church sex abuse who say that casting victims as liars and priests as beyond reproach perpetuates a culture that allowed abuse to thrive within the Catholic Church for decades.

Statistics released in 2017 by Australia's Royal Commission into Responses to Institutional Child Sex Abuse stated that 7% of all Catholic priests in the country had abused children over the past six decades.

Judge Kidd addressed the current climate of anger with the Catholic Church at Pell's February hearing when he said, "The Catholic Church is not on trial and I'm not imposing a sentence on the Catholic Church. I'm imposing a sentence on Cardinal Pell for what he did."

As Judge Kidd handed down his sentence Wednesday, no sounds could be heard in the court.

The judge sent him to jail with the words: "Can Cardinal Pell be taken away please?"</s>The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse was sentenced in an Australian court on Wednesday to 6 years in prison for molesting two choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral more than 20 years ago.

Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd on Wednesday ordered Cardinal George Pell to serve a minimum of 3 years and 8 months before he is eligible for parole. Each of the five convictions against Pell carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years each.

"In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance," Kidd said in handing down the sentence.

Pope Francis' former finance minister had been convicted by a unanimous jury verdict in December of orally raping a 13-year-old choirboy and indecently dealing with the boy and the boy's 13-year-old friend in the late 1990s, months after Pell became archbishop of Melbourne. A court order had suppressed media reporting the news until last month.

The 77-year-old denies the allegations and will appeal his convictions in the Victoria Court of Appeal on June 5.

In explaining his sentencing decision, the judge said Pell had led an "otherwise blameless life." Kidd said he believed given Pell's age and lack of any other criminal record, the cardinal posed no risk of re-offending.

The judge also took pains to note that he was sentencing Pell for the offenses on which the cardinal had been convicted — and not for the sins of the Catholic Church.

"As I directed the jury who convicted you in this trail, you are not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church," Kidd said.

But the judge also noted that Pell had abused his position of power and had shown no remorse for his crimes. Kidd described the assaults as egregious, degrading and humiliating to the victims.

After centuries of impunity, cardinals from Australia to Chile and points in between are facing justice in both the Vatican and government courts for their own sexual misdeeds or for having shielded abusers under their watch.

Last week, France's senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was convicted of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police. Barbarin was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Pope Francis last month defrocked the onetime leader of the American church after an internal investigation determined Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually molested children and adult men. It was the first time a cardinal had been defrocked over the child abuse scandal.

One of Pell's victims died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31 without ever reporting the abuse.

The survivor made a statement against Pell the following year to a police task force set up to investigate allegations that arose from a state parliamentary inquiry into handling of child abuse by religious and other nongovernment organizations. The task force also investigates allegations made to a similar national inquiry, called the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Pell gave evidence by video link from Rome to the royal commission, the nations' highest level of inquiry, in 2016 about his time as a church leader in Melbourne and in his hometown of Ballarat.

The four-year royal commission found in its 2017 report that the Melbourne Archdiocese had ignored or covered up allegations of child abuse by seven priests in a bid to protect the church's reputation and avoid scandal.

The royal commission was critical of Pell's predecessor in Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little, who died in 2008. It made no findings against Pell, saying in a redacted report that it would not publish information that could "prejudice current or future criminal or civil proceedings."

Australian police interviewed Pell about the survivor's allegations in a Rome hotel in 2016. Pell described the allegations at the time as "vile and disgusting conduct" that went against everything he believed in.

Pell voluntarily returned to Australia in 2017 to face an array of child abuse charges, most of which have since been dropped. The full details of those allegations were suppressed by court orders.

Pell was once the highest-ranking Catholic in Australia's second-largest city, where he is now a prisoner held in protective security. Pedophiles such as Pell are typically separated from the main prison populations in Australia.

Pell was 55 years old and had recently established a compensation plan for Melbourne's victims of clergy abuse when he abused the two boys at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1996. The survivor testified that Pell had walked in on the boys swigging altar wine in a back room after a Sunday Mass.

More than a month later, Pell abused the survivor again, squeezing the boy's genitals as they passed in a cathedral corridor after a Mass.</s>Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Vatican official to be convicted of sex abuse to date, has been sentenced to six years in prison for the “callous” assault of two choirboys in the late 1990s.

A former senior adviser to Pope Francis, Pell showed no reaction when Chief Judge Peter Kidd handed down his sentence in a hearing broadcast live worldwide on Wednesday from Victoria’s County Court in central Melbourne.

Pell, 77, was found guilty of one count of sexual penetration of a child and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child last December after a secret five-week trial.

Reporting of the trial and verdict was suppressed by the court to avoid prejudicing a second trial, which crown prosecutors abandoned in February after the judge ruled some prosecution evidence couldn’t be submitted.

On Wednesday, Judge Kidd said Pell’s attack on the victims was “breathtakingly arrogant.”

But the judge said Pell was “not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church.”

Pell’s legal team has previously announced it will appeal his conviction on three grounds, including that the jury’s verdict on all five charges was unreasonable, based on the evidence submitted. The Court of Appeal is due to hear submissions in early June.

Pell has spent the past two weeks in custody and was brought into the court from the Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) via an internal entrance, avoiding rows of cameras set up outside the court in central Melbourne.

More than 150 people crammed into the courtroom, which had been fitted with extra seats to cope with the demand from those who wanted to be there in person to hear how he’d be punished.

Pell sat in the back of the courtroom, surrounded by security officers but uncuffed, as Judge Kidd delivered a detailed explanation of the crimes the cardinal had committed and the reasons for the sentence.

After mass one Sunday in the late 1990s, Judge Kidd recounted, Pell caught two choirboys drinking communion wine in the priest’s sacristy and one by one forced them to engage in sex acts, despite their sobs and pleas for him to let them go.

The first choirboy told how he was forced to perform oral sex on the cardinal, who at the time was Archbishop of Melbourne and a revered figure within the Catholic Church.

The boy didn’t tell anyone what had happened for years, before finally approached Victoria Police in 2015, almost 20 years after the crime. His statement led to an investigation and a number of historical sex abuse charges being filed against the then-Vatican treasurer.

After his conviction, the Vatican launched its own investigation into Pell, which could lead to the cardinal losing his clerical status or being “defrocked,” a severe punishment imposed by the Pope and not subject to appeal.

In his ruling, Judge Kidd was careful not to name the two victims, one of whom gave taped evidence against Pell on a video that was seen only by the jury during the trial. Under Australian law it’s illegal to identify sex abuse victims or reveal information that could expose who they are.

The first victim has declined to comment publicly but said in a statement released by his lawyer after the ruling that since the attack he had experienced “shame, loneliness (and) depression.”

He asked that he be left alone and given time to cope with the ongoing criminal process. “The process has been stressful and is not over yet,” he said.

The second victim died of a heroin overdose a few years ago.

The deceased victim’s father told CNN that his son had been an outgoing child who played sport and liked singing, a talent that earned him a scholarship to the prestigious boys’ school and ultimately an invitation to sing in St. Patrick’s Cathedral where the attack took place.

Around one year after the assault, he said his son was kicked out of the choir, lost his scholarship and started injecting heroin.

“He was trying to mask something that had happened to him. He was trying to cover up something that had happened to him, so heinous and so horrible,” said his father, who is considering filing a civil case against the church.

Pell’s defense team had submitted 10 references that attested to Pell’s good character. They included one from former Prime Minister John Howard who wrote that Pell, his friend for approximately 30 years, was a person of “high intelligence and exemplary character.”

Howard said he was aware of Pell’s conviction and pending appeal but that “none of these matters alter my opinion of the Cardinal.”

Several of Pell’s other high-profile friends in Australia have leaped to his defense, questioning the jury’s verdict and predicting the cardinal would be exonerated on appeal.

The depiction of Pell as a man wronged has infuriated survivors of church sex abuse who say that casting victims as liars and priests as beyond reproach perpetuates a culture that allowed abuse to thrive within the Catholic Church for decades.

Statistics released in 2017 by Australia’s Royal Commission into Responses to Institutional Child Sex Abuse stated that 7% of all Catholic priests in the country had abused children over the past six decades.

Judge Kidd addressed the current climate of anger with the Catholic Church at Pell’s February hearing when he said, “The Catholic Church is not on trial and I’m not imposing a sentence on the Catholic Church. I’m imposing a sentence on Cardinal Pell for what he did.”</s>Cardinal George Pell, Former Vatican Official, Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison

Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, a former leading Vatican official who last month was convicted of sexually abusing two boys, has been sentenced to six years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after three years and eight months.

During the sentencing hearing, Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd acknowledged the disgraced cleric may not live to serve the full sentence.

"I am conscious that the term of imprisonment, which I am about to impose upon you, carries with it a real, as distinct from theoretical, possibility that you may not live to be released from prison," Kidd said to Pell.

The prospect of facing jail at Pell's advanced age "must be an awful state of affairs," Kidd added.

Pell was convicted in December of five sexual offenses committed against two 13-year-old choirboys during an incident in 1996 at Melbourne's grandest cathedral, when he was archbishop.

A 12-member jury unanimously found him guilty of exposing himself to the two boys, fondling them and forcing one to perform oral sex on him. The jury also convicted Pell of indecently assaulting one of the boys more than a month later.

A court-issued gag order had suppressed media reporting of the news until last month.

Following the sentencing on Wednesday, Vivian Waller, a lawyer for one of the victims, read a written statement by her client outside the court.

"It is hard for me to allow myself to feel the gravity of this moment, the moment when the sentence is handed down, the moment when justice is done," the man wrote. "It is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome. I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me. Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal."

The other victim died in 2014 of a heroin overdose. He was 31 and never reported the abuse.

Pell denies the allegations, and his lawyers argue he has been made a scapegoat for the failings of the Catholic Church regarding sexual abuse by priests, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reported.

Pell has filed an appeal, and the court will determine if there are sufficient grounds for it to be heard. A court date has been set for June 5.

In court on Wednesday, Pell was told he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.

He is the most senior Vatican leader ever charged with sexual abuse. He was selected by Pope Francis to run the Vatican's new economic ministry.</s>Cardinal George Pell, once a top adviser to Pope Francis, was sentenced Wednesday morning to six years in prison for sexually abusing two choirboys in the 1990s. Pell is the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church to be found guilty of abuse.

Victoria state County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd took into account Pell's service, but called his actions "breathtakingly arrogant," Austalia's Network 10 reporter Emma O'Sullivan told CBSN. O'Sullivan reported that Pell was "poker-faced" during the sentencing.

Pell has maintained his innocence, and even filed papers for an appeal before the sentencing, O'Sullivan added.

In explaining his sentencing decision, the judge said Pell had led an "otherwise blameless life." Kidd said he believed given Pell's age and lack of any other criminal record, the cardinal posed no risk of re-offending. Pell faced a maximum sentence of 50 years, but he will be eligible for parole in no less than three years and eight months, O'Sullivan said.

The judge also took pains to note that he was sentencing Pell for the offenses on which the cardinal had been convicted — and not for the sins of the Catholic Church.

"As I directed the jury who convicted you in this trail, you are not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church," Kidd said.

But the judge also noted that Pell had abused his position of power and had shown no remorse for his crimes. Kidd described the assaults as egregious, degrading and humiliating to the victims.

After centuries of impunity, cardinals from Australia to Chile and points in between are facing justice in both the Vatican and government courts for their own sexual misdeeds or for having shielded abusers under their watch.

Last week, France's senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was convicted of failing to report a known pedophile priest to police. Barbarin was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Pope Francis last month defrocked the onetime leader of the American church after an internal investigation determined Cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually molested children and adult men. It was the first time a cardinal had been defrocked over the child abuse scandal.

One of Pell's victims died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31 without ever reporting the abuse.

The survivor made a statement against Pell the following year to a police task force set up to investigate allegations that arose from a state parliamentary inquiry into handling of child abuse by religious and other nongovernment organizations. The task force also investigates allegations made to a similar national inquiry, called the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Pell gave evidence by video link from Rome to the royal commission, the nations' highest level of inquiry, in 2016 about his time as a church leader in Melbourne and in his hometown of Ballarat.

The four-year royal commission found in its 2017 report that the Melbourne Archdiocese had ignored or covered up allegations of child abuse by seven priests in a bid to protect the church's reputation and avoid scandal.

The royal commission was critical of Pell's predecessor in Melbourne, Archbishop Frank Little, who died in 2008. It made no findings against Pell, saying in a redacted report that it would not publish information that could "prejudice current or future criminal or civil proceedings."

Australian police interviewed Pell about the survivor's allegations in a Rome hotel in 2016. Pell described the allegations at the time as "vile and disgusting conduct" that went against everything he believed in.

Pell voluntarily returned to Australia in 2017 to face an array of child abuse charges, most of which have since been dropped. The full details of those allegations were suppressed by court orders.

Pell was once the highest-ranking Catholic in Australia's second-largest city, where he is now a prisoner held in protective security. Pedophiles such as Pell are typically separated from the main prison populations in Australia.

Pell was 55 years old and had recently established a compensation plan for Melbourne's victims of clergy abuse when he abused the two boys at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1996. The survivor testified that Pell had walked in on the boys swigging altar wine in a back room after a Sunday Mass.

More than a month later, Pell abused the survivor again, squeezing the boy's genitals as they passed in a cathedral corridor after a Mass.</s>Australian Cardinal George Pell, once the Vatican's number three, was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison for five crimes of sexual abuse, one for oral penetration, against two minors, in events that occurred more than 20 years ago.

Judge Peter Kidd of the Victoria State Court in Melbourne said Pell will have to serve three years and eight months of his sentence before being able to ask for parole.</s>Ex-Vatican Official, Cardinal Pell, Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison

Australian Cardinal George Pell on Wednesday was sentenced to six years in prison — making him the most senior Catholic official to be found guilty in a criminal court of child molestation.</s>An Australian court on Wednesday sentenced former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell to six years in jail for sexually abusing two choir boys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996, Reuters reported. The 77-year-old is the highest ranking Catholic priest to be convicted of child sex offences and has also faced allegations that he covered up complaints of child sexual abuse by priests.

Pell was held guilty in December. He has maintained his innocence and has filed an appeal on three grounds, which will be heard in June.

“In my view, your conduct was permeated by staggering arrogance,” County Court of Victoria Chief Judge Peter Kidd said in the sentencing. “Viewed overall, I consider your moral culpability across both episodes to be high.”

Pell was ordered to sign the sex offender register and was sentenced to a minimum of three years and eight months in jail, AFP reported. You “may not live to be released from prison” the judge told the priest, accusing him of a “brazen and forceful sexual attack on the two victims.” The cardinal faced a maximum 50 years in prison for the five charges.

Prosecutors accused Pell of forcing the boys, whom he found drinking communion wine in a cathedral room at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, into “indecent acts”. Pell then was archbishop of Melbourne. He allegedly abused one of the boys in 1997 again. One of the accusers died in 2014 of an accidental heroin overdose, having never disclosed the abuse.

However, the judge said Pell was “not to be made a scapegoat for any failings or perceived failings of the Catholic Church”. His appeal has been scheduled for a hearing on June 5 and 6.

“A small amount of justice has been done today,” an advocate for the victims said outside the court. “I don’t think six years is long enough.”</s>Ex-Vatican Official, Cardinal Pell, Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison

Australian Cardinal George Pell on Wednesday was sentenced to six years in prison — making him the most senior Catholic official to be found guilty in a criminal court of child molestation.

How much prison time is enough for the most senior Catholic cleric ever charged with sexual abuse? An Australian judge gave his answer. He sentenced Cardinal George Pell to six years for the sexual abuse of two boys in 1996. Judge Peter Kidd acknowledged the possibility that Pell may not live to be released from prison because he is 77 years old. That outcome is still not satisfying for one of the victims, who issued a statement read here by lawyer Vivian Waller.

VIVIAN WALLER: It is hard for me, for the time being, to take comfort in this outcome. I appreciate that the court has acknowledged what was inflicted upon me as a child. However, there is no rest for me.

INSKEEP: NPR's Sylvia Poggioli is based in Rome and is covering this story. Hi, Sylvia.

INSKEEP: So I just said the sexual abuse of two boys in 1996 - I feel like that brief phrase - it almost glosses it over, doesn't quite do justice here. What are some of the details of what really happened?

POGGIOLI: Well, they're rather, you know, heavy details. He was accused of basically exposing his genitals and so forth to these two young boys in the sacristy of Melbourne Cathedral, where Pell was archbishop in 1996. We just learned two weeks ago that he had been convicted in December of five charges, and today we heard the sentencing. And the judge, Peter Kidd, said a non-parole period of three years and eight months. He described Pell's conduct as staggering arrogance and said he hadn't shown remorse.

Now, Pell faced a maximum of 10 years for each charge, and this sentence was seen as very light. It disappointed a lot of the lawyers of the victims, but the judge said that Pell had otherwise had a blameless life and doesn't pose a risk of re-offending. But he did have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

INSKEEP: Help me understand otherwise blameless life. Had there been no other accusations besides the two particular ones that were brought to trial here?

POGGIOLI: Not at all. There have been several others. In fact, there was going to be another trial. That's why there had been a gag order for so long on the first trial. But the judge dropped that trial. And now one of the victims in this case, who has died since, his family is planning to do a civil lawsuit against Pell. So definitely - and there have been other charges.

INSKEEP: So otherwise blameless life - maybe not an accurate statement.

POGGIOLI: I would say so, yeah.

INSKEEP: OK. Nevertheless, there is this conviction. There is this sentencing. How significant is it that a senior official of the Catholic Church would be called to account in this way before a civil court?

POGGIOLI: It's huge, and it's only one of several blows for the Vatican. A week ago, the French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin offered to resign after he was given a six-month suspended sentence for failing to report allegations of abuse of minors by a priest. We see now civil authorities in many countries are opening up sex abuse investigations against local churches. So after three decades of these scandals across the world and while the Vatican sort of delays introducing accountability rules, the Catholic Church is really coming face-to-face with civil justice. I think we see the - we're seeing the end of a centuries-old practice in which governments had a hands-off noninterference policy toward the Catholic Church. These officials can no longer expect this kind of treatment. Like all citizens, they're going to be held accountable by civil justice systems now.</s>Australian Cardinal George Pell on Wednesday was sentenced to six years in prison — making him the most senior Catholic official to be found guilty in a criminal court of child molestation.
Cardinal George Pell, the most senior official of the Catholic Church to be convicted of sexual abuse to date, is sentenced to six years in prison for the sexual assault of two children in the late 1990s.