YOU JUST SAW:

Cardinal George Pell arrives to meet the media, at the Vatican, Thursday, June 29, 2017. The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney says Vatican Cardinal George Pell will return to Australia to fight sexual assault charges as soon as possible. (AP Photo/Greg</s>VATICAN CITY — Cardinal George Pell, a senior adviser to Pope Francis, is taking leave from the Vatican to fight historical sexual assault charges in his home country of Australia.

The case is the latest black mark on the Catholic Church, which has been reeling from sexual abuse scandals across several countries that date back decades.

Pell said he had been the victim of “relentless character assassinations.”

“I’m innocent of these charges, they are false,” Pell said in a press conference from Rome early Thursday. “The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”

Australian police have not released a detailed list of charges and didn’t disclose any information about alleged victims, saying only there were “multiple complainants.”

“All along, I have been completely consistent and clear in my total rejection of these allegations. News of these charges strengthens my resolve and court proceedings now offer me an opportunity to clear my name,” Pell said.

“I’m looking forward finally to having my day in court.”

“I want to be perfectly clear — the process and the procedures that have been followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offenses whenever we investigate them,” Victoria Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Patton said at a news conference.

“Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else in this investigation.”

In 2013, Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, was named as one of eight cardinals tasked with investigating ways to reform the Catholic Church.

Sex abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church has been documented in the United States, Ireland, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.

Pell is likely the highest-ranking Catholic official charged in connection with sex abuse in recent years.

“His role is to oversee the budgeting processes and financial procedures of the Vatican,” CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen said.

“If it’s analogous to the US government, he would basically be the secretary of the treasury.”

Pell has previously denied covering up abuse committed by priests when he served as the Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001. But he acknowledged his predecessor, Archbishop Frank Little, now deceased, had destroyed documents to protect priests.

The office of Pell’s successor in Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart, released a statement saying he believes Pell is entitled to a fair trial.

“Cardinal Pell has been a friend and brother priest of Archbishop Hart for more than 50 years,” the statement said. “It is a matter of public record that Cardinal Pell addressed the evil of sexual abuse in the Church on becoming Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.”

Pell will be required to appear in the Melbourne Magistrate’s court on July 18 for a filing hearing, when a full charge list is expected to be released. He is facing multiple charges and there are multiple complainants relating to those charges, police said.

SNAP, the US-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, lauded the decision in a statement. “We are always grateful and encouraged when law enforcement works hard to gather evidence to build a case against a powerful and influential man,” the statement said.

The announcement is likely to deal a serious blow to the reputation of the Catholic Church in Australia, which has seen its membership shrink in recent years. The 2016 census results, released Tuesday, showed that Catholics no longer make up the top religious affiliation in Australia.

The charges could also have ramifications for Pope Francis, who counts Cardinal Pell among his top advisers.

“It’s not every day that a senior Vatican official is facing criminal charges,” Allen said. “It’s going to cast a new spotlight on Pope Francis’ track record in dealing with the abuse crisis, which frankly I think most observers would tell you is kind of mixed.”

The Vatican issued a statement Thursday, praising the cardinal’s work in combating sex abuse — including cooperating with authorities and introducing systems in order to help protect and assist minors in Australia.

“The Holy See expresses its respect for the Australian justice system, which will have to decide the merits of the questions raised,” Vatican Press Officer Greg Burke said. “At the same time, it’s important to recall that Cardinal Pell has openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable the acts of abuse against minors.”

When asked about the allegations last year, Pope Francis said he’d defer to the courts before making his own judgment.

“One mustn’t judge before justice judges,” Francis said, according to Vatican radio.

In 2015, Pope Francis created a church tribunal to judge bishops who fail to protect children from sexually abusive priests.

The 2013 Royal Commission, a government inquiry into sex abuse in Australia, found that 7% of priests in Australia were accused of abusing children, from 1950 until 2015. At least 1,880 alleged perpetrators were identified and 4,444 victims came forward.

In the US, analysis of information on 110,000 priests who served the Church between 1950 and 2002 found that 4% of them had been accused of abuse.

Before the Australian Royal Commission, Pell was largely seen as indifferent to the scandal, according to Allen.

“In Australia, George Pell would be seen as kind of the leading symbol of the sex abuse problem. And that’s in part because he has said some things and done some things that victims and lawyers and advocacy groups have seen as insensitive and tone-deaf,” Allen said. “His defenders would have a different line, but that certainly has been the charge.”

Pell testified multiple times to the Royal Commission in 2013 and apologized for the abuse. He also acknowledged that cover-ups allowed pedophile priests to continue abusing children.

“The primary motivation would have been to respect the reputation of the church. There was a fear of scandal,” Pell said. ”Many in the church did not understand just what damage was being done to the victims. We understand that better now.”

Pell’s statements will likely be key in a trial.

“A lot of legal observers in Australia were telling me that they were skeptical that there would be enough to these accusations to sustain a criminal indictment,” Allen said.

“This Royal Commission, that the government poured God knows how much money into, I think was under intense pressure to get a scalp on the wall. And I’m quite sure that’s what Pell’s legal team and his defenders are going to be saying.”</s>YOU JUST SAW:

Cardinal George Pell prepares to make a statement, at the Vatican, Thursday, June 29, 2017. The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney says Vatican Cardinal George Pell will return to Australia to fight sexual assault charges as soon as possible. (AP Photo/G</s>(VATICAN CITY) — Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis' top advisers, took a leave of absence as the Vatican's financial czar on Thursday to face multiple criminal charges in his native Australia that allege he committed sexual assault years ago.

Pell appeared before reporters in the Vatican press office to forcefully deny the accusations, denounce what he called a "relentless character assassination" in the media and announce he would return to Australia to clear his name.

"I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me," Pell said.

The Vatican said the leave took effect immediately and that Pell would not participate in any public liturgical event while it was in effect. Pell said he intended to eventually return to Rome to resume his work as prefect of the Vatican's economy ministry.

Pell, 76, is the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church's long-running sexual abuse scandal, and the developments posed a major new obstacle for Francis as he works to reform the Vatican.

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton announced the charges Thursday, saying police had summonsed Pell to appear in court to face multiple counts of "historical sexual assault offenses," meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago. Patton said there are multiple complainants against Pell, but gave no other details on the allegations against the cardinal.

Pell was ordered to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said the Holy See had learned with "regret" of the charges and that the Vatican's financial reforms would continue in his absence.

In a statement he read to reporters while sitting beside Pell, Burke said the Vatican respected Australia's justice system but recalled that the cardinal had "openly and repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable" acts of sexual abuse against minors.

He noted that Pell had cooperated with Australia's Royal Commission investigation into sex abuse and that as a bishop in Australia, worked to protect children and compensate victims.

"The Holy Father, who has appreciated Cardinal Pell's honesty during his three years of work in the Roman Curia, is grateful for his collaboration," Burke added.

The charges were announced on a major Catholic feast day, and on a day when many of the world's cardinals were already in Rome for a ceremony Wednesday to elevate five new cardinals to the ranks of "princes of the church." As Pell spoke to reporters, preparations were under way in St. Peter's Square for a huge Mass that Pell had been expected to concelebrate, but stood down after the charges were announced.

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. But more recently, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation, with Victoria detectives flying to the Vatican last year to interview the cardinal. It is unclear what allegations the charges announced Thursday relate to, but two men, now in their 40s, have said previously that Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.

Patton told reporters in Melbourne that none of the allegations against Pell had been tested in any court, adding: "Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process."

The charges are a new and serious blow to Pope Francis, who has already suffered several credibility setbacks in his promised "zero tolerance" policy about sex abuse.

The charges will also further complicate Francis' financial reform efforts at the Vatican, which were already strained by Pell's repeated clashes with the Italian-dominated bureaucracy. Just last week, one of Pell's top allies, the Vatican's auditor general, resigned without explanation two years into a five-year term, immediately raising questions about whether the reform effort was doomed.

In his statement, Burke said Pell's economy secretariat would continue working in his absence until other provisions are decided.

Pell's actions as archbishop came under intense scrutiny in recent years by a government-authorized investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to the sexual abuse of children. Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — the nation's highest form of inquiry — has found shocking levels of abuse in Australia's Catholic Church, revealing earlier this year that 7 percent of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children over the past several decades.

Last year, Pell acknowledged during his testimony to the commission that the Catholic Church had made "enormous mistakes" in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests. He conceded that he, too, had erred by often believing the priests over victims who alleged abuse. And he vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued church abuse victims in his Australian hometown of Ballarat.

Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican. But in a statement from the Sydney Archdiocese, Pell said he would return to Australia "as soon as possible," following advice and approval by his doctors. Last year, Pell declined to return to Australia to testify for the third time before the Royal Commission, saying he was too ill to fly. He instead testified via video conference from Rome.

The Blue Knot Foundation, an Australian support group for adult survivors of childhood abuse, said the decision to charge Pell sent a powerful message to both abuse survivors and society as a whole.

"It upholds that no one is above the law, no matter how high their office, qualifications, or standing," the group's head of research, Pam Stavropoulos, said in a statement.

The charges put the pope in a thorny position. In 2014, Francis won cautious praise from victims' advocacy groups when he created a commission of outside experts to advise him and the broader church about "best practices" to fight abuse and protect children.

But the commission has since lost much of its credibility after its two members who were survivors of abuse left. Francis also scrapped the commission's signature proposal — a tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who covered up for abuse — after Vatican officials objected.

In addition, Francis drew heated criticism for his 2015 appointment of a Chilean bishop accused by victims of helping cover up for Chile's most notorious pedophile. The pope was later caught on videotape labeling the parishioners who opposed the nomination of being "leftists" and "stupid."

Francis appointed Pell in 2014 to a five-year term to head the Vatican's new economy secretariat, giving him broad rein to control all economic, administrative, personnel and procurement functions of the Holy See. The mandate has since been restricted to performing more of an oversight role.</s>The third-ranking official in the Catholic Church, Cardinal George Pell, has said he will strenuously defend himself against allegations of sexual assaults.

"I'm looking forward finally to having my day in court," he said on Thursday.

On Friday, Australian police confirmed his first opportunity would be on 26 July - eight days later than first scheduled - when he is due to appear at a hearing in Melbourne.

The process is expected to draw intense international interest.

What do we know about the accusations?

Little at this stage. Police in the state of Victoria said Cardinal Pell, 76, was accused of "historical" assaults and there were "multiple complainants".

But they did not detail the charges or specify the number of alleged victims.

A magistrate will decide next week whether to make details of the alleged incidents public.

Why is this happening now?

In February, police handed a brief of evidence to state prosecutors seeking legal advice.

Prosecutors gave their input last month, and police said they would "take time to consider the advice".

On Thursday, they decided to serve charges on Cardinal Pell's legal representatives in Melbourne.

Cardinal Pell complained that he had been subjected to "relentless character assassination" during a two-year investigation into the "false" claims.

How long will the legal process take?

Melbourne-based media lawyer Justin Quill predicts it could be lengthy, potentially lasting years.

He also said it would be common - in legal process terms - for Cardinal Pell not to appear in person at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on 26 July.

"It will only be an initial hearing on procedural issues and it is normal for a defendant not to be present - especially where they normally reside overseas," he told the BBC.

Cardinal Pell was questioned by Australian detectives in the Vatican last year after saying he was too unwell to take a long flight to Australia.

In a statement on Thursday, the Vatican treasurer said he would return to Australia "to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements".

Who will pay the legal costs?

Not the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, according to the cleric who succeeded Cardinal Pell as archbishop of the Australian city.

"While the Archdiocese will assist with the Cardinal's accommodation and support, as it would for any of its bishops or priests, it is not responsible for the Cardinal's legal bills arising from these matters," said Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher.

"Victims should be listened to with respect and compassion, and their complaints investigated and dealt with according to law."

Will it damage the Church?

The Catholic Church worldwide has in recent years faced a damaging series of allegations relating to sex abuse by priests, and claims that these cases were covered up.

Father Kevin Dillon, a Catholic priest and vocal supporter of abuse survivors, said the charges would have a "devastating impact" on morale in the Church.

"The whole abuse saga has been so ugly for so long, and now this," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.

"So many Catholics will be devastated that these complaints have reached such heights in the Church."

The BBC's David Willey said the saga is seen as a punishing body-blow to the reputation and credibility of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church.</s>"Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements," the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement.

"He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously," it said.

Australian police charged Pell by summons on Thursday to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18. [nL3N1JQ04L]</s>SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Catholic Church in Australia said on Thursday Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican treasurer, “strenuously denies” multiple sexual assault offences brought against him by Australian police.

“Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements,” the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement.

“He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously,” it said.

Australian police charged Pell by summons on Thursday to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18. [nL3N1JQ04L]</s>(VATICAN CITY) — Australian police charged a top Vatican cardinal on Thursday with multiple counts of "historical" sexual assault offenses, a stunning decision certain to rock the highest levels of the Holy See.

Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' chief financial adviser and Australia's most senior Catholic, said in an early morning appearance at the Vatican that he would take a leave of absence as the Vatican's finance czar and would return to Australia to fight the charges. He denied the accusations and denounced what he called a "relentless character assassination" in the media.

Pell is the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church's long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton in Australia's Victoria state said police have summonsed Pell to appear in court to face multiple charges of "historical sexual assault offenses," meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago. Patton said there are multiple complainants against Pell, but gave no other details on the allegations against the cardinal. Pell was ordered to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.

For years, Pell, 76, has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. But more recently, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation, with Victoria detectives flying to the Vatican last year to interview the cardinal. It is unclear what allegations the charges announced Thursday relate to, but two men, now in their 40s, have said that Pell touched them inappropriately at a swimming pool in the late 1970s, when Pell was a senior priest in Melbourne.

Patton told reporters in Melbourne that none of the allegations against Pell had been tested in any court, adding: "Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process."

The charges are a new and serious blow to Pope Francis, who has already suffered several credibility setbacks in his promised "zero tolerance" policy about sex abuse. The charges will also further complicate Francis' financial reform efforts at the Vatican, which were already strained by Pell's repeated clashes with the Italian-dominated bureaucracy. Just last week, one of Pell's top allies, the Vatican's auditor general, resigned without explanation two years into a five-year term, immediately raising questions about whether the reform effort was doomed.

Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Pope Francis had learned with "regret" of the charges and had granted Pell a leave of absence to defend himself. He said the Vatican's financial reforms would continue in his absence.

Pell's actions as archbishop came under intense scrutiny in recent years by a government-authorized investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to the sexual abuse of children. Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — the nation's highest form of inquiry — has found shocking levels of abuse in Australia's Catholic Church, revealing earlier this year that 7 percent of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children over the past several decades.

Last year, Pell acknowledged during his testimony to the commission that the Catholic Church had made "enormous mistakes" in allowing thousands of children to be raped and molested by priests over centuries. He conceded that he, too, had erred by often believing the priests over victims who alleged abuse. And he vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued church abuse victims in his Australian hometown of Ballarat.

Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican. But in a statement from the Sydney Archdiocese, Pell said he would return to Australia "as soon as possible," following advice and approval by his doctors. Last year, Pell declined to return to Australia to testify for the third time before the Royal Commission, saying he was too ill to fly. He instead testified via video conference from Rome.

The Blue Knot Foundation, an Australian support group for adult survivors of childhood abuse, said the decision to charge Pell sent a powerful message to both abuse survivors and society as a whole.

"It upholds that no one is above the law, no matter how high their office, qualifications, or standing," the group's head of research, Pam Stavropoulos, said in a statement.

The charges put the pope in a thorny position. In 2014, Francis won cautious praise from victims' advocacy groups when he created a commission of outside experts to advise him and the broader church about "best practices" to fight abuse and protect children.

But the commission has since lost much of its credibility after its two members who were survivors of abuse left. Francis also scrapped the commission's signature proposal — a tribunal section to hear cases of bishops who covered up for abuse — after Vatican officials objected.

In addition, Francis drew heated criticism for his 2015 appointment of a Chilean bishop accused by victims of helping cover up for Chile's most notorious pedophile. The pope was later caught on videotape labeling the parishioners who opposed the nomination of being "leftists" and "stupid."

Francis appointed Pell in 2014 to a five-year term to head the Vatican's new economy secretariat, giving him broad rein to control all economic, administrative, personnel and procurement functions of the Holy See. The mandate has since been restricted to performing more of an oversight role.</s>Australia's most senior Catholic has reacted to the Australian Police's decision to charge him with multiple counts of "historical" sexual assault offenses... saying that he is "innocent".

Cardinal George Pell said early Thursday morning that he was looking forward to defending himself in court... And that he was granted leave by Pope Francis to clear his name after what he said was "relentless character assassination" by the media.

Cardinal Pell, the Pope's Chief Financial Adviser... Is the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church's long-running sexual abuse scandal.</s>"Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements," the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement.

"He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously," it said.

Australian police charged Pell by summons on Thursday to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney says Cardinal Pell "strenuously denies" these sexual assault charges.