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

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police have summonsed Pell to appear in an Australian court to face multiple charges of “historic sexual 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.

Pell has repeatedly denied all abuse allegations made against him. The Catholic Church in Australia, which issues statements on Pell’s behalf, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.

“It is important to note that none of the allegations that have been made against Cardinal Pell have, obviously, been tested in any court yet,” Patton told reporters in Melbourne. “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.

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. His 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 years-long 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.

But more recently, Pell himself became the focus of a clergy sex abuse investigation.</s>Cardinal George Pell gestures as he talks during a news conference for the presentation of new president of Vatican Bank IOR, at the Vatican July 9, 2014. Source: Reuters/Tony Gentile

POLICE in Australia have charged the Vatican’s treasurer cardinal George Pell over sexual assault allegations from several people.

The 76-year-old priest, who is a top adviser to the Pope on financial matters and Australia’s most senior clergyman, was charged on Thursday by Victoria Police over “historical sexual assault offences.”

Pell has long denied any involvement in the sexual abuse of children, which Australian media has reported allegedly occurred from the 1970s to 1990s.

“During the course of the investigation in relation to Cardinal Pell, there has been a lot of reporting in the media and a lot of speculation about the process that has been involved in the investigation,” said Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton of Victoria Police on Thursday.

“For clarity, I want to be perfectly clear, the process and procedures that are being followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offences whenever we investigate them.”

SEE ALSO: Australia: Investigation finds 4,000 institutions implicated in child sex abuse

“Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process and so therefore it is important that the process is allowed to run its natural course,” said Patton.

A statement issued by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney reiterated that Pell has “strenuously denied all allegations.”

“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,” said the statement.

Pell had previously refused to return to Australia to report to the country’s Royal Commission into Child Abuse, which found some 4000 predominantly-religious institutions implicated in the sexual abuse of children, claiming to be too sick to travel.

In February, a motion was presented in the Australian Senate calling upon the cardinal to return to Australia to cooperate with police over allegations against him.

Pell will be required to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a filing hearing. He will issue a public statement in Rome later today.</s>Australia's Cardinal George Pell has been charged by police with multiple sexual assault offences apparently dating back as far as the 1970s. He is currently prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican and supposedly third in the Church hierarchy. He is a close advisor of Pope Francis.

Global online reactions were swift. Cathy M Helsley, who is from the US state of Ohio and identifies herself as a “child of God”, tweeted:

Hilly is clearly no fan of Pell:

Peter Chambers, a “conservative to the core”, defended the cardinal:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has indicated that he will return home to clear his name. They issued a statement that he will return “following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel” arrangements.

In February 2016, Pell gave evidence to the Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse via video link from Rome. He was questioned about his knowledge of and response to allegations of child sex abuse within the Church. He had claimed that ill-health prevented him from flying home.

Given that context, the latest news brought out some cynics:

According to a police spokesperson, the charges are based on multiple complainants. There has been a long history of allegations of child abuse against Pell. The case will open in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on July 18. The details of the charges are not yet public.</s>Vatican chief financial adviser takes leave of absence after being charged with historical sexual assault offences

Top Vatican Cardinal George Pell has said he will take a leave of absence, but will not resign as he vowed to "clear" his name over multiple counts of historical sexual assault offences.

"I have kept Pope Francis regularly informed throughout this lengthy process, and have spoken to him in recent days about the need to take leave to clear my name," Pell said in a statement on Thursday.

Pell is the pope's chief financial adviser and Australia's most senior Catholic official.

Earlier on Thursday, he was summoned to appear in an Australian court to face multiple charges of "historic sexual offences", meaning the offences generally occurred some time ago.

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

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said Pell is required to appear at a Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a hearing.

The cardinal has strongly denied all accusations against him and said he is "looking forward" to his day in court.

"I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me," Pell said in during news conference from the Vatican on Thursday.

While details regarding the charges have yet to be released, Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Sydney, said "the fact that there are multiple charges to answer against, really gives the impression that these are very serious allegations".

Pam Stavropoulos of the Sydney-based Blue Knot Foundation told Al Jazeera that the fact such charges have been issued "is highly significant".

She said that because they have been "laid frivolously would be the response of a long investigation by the Australian police", adding that the charges show "this is certainly a highly serious matter".

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.

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney.

His actions as archbishop came under intense scrutiny in recent years by an Australian government-authorised investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to the sexual abuse of children.

In February, The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, reported more than 4,400 alleged incidents of sexual abuse by Catholic priests between 1980 and 2015.

It also said seven percent of Catholic priests in Australian were accused of sexually abusing children between 1950 and 2015, but few allegations were investigated.

During his testimony to the commission last year, Pell acknowledged that the 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.</s>VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal George Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial czar on Thursday to fight 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 takes effect immediately and that Pell will not participate in any public liturgical event while it is in place. Pell said he intends 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 ever to be charged in the church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal, and the developments pose a major and immediate 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 work of Pell’s office would continue in his absence, albeit only its “ordinary” affairs.

 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, he 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, when many of the world’s cardinals were already in Rome for a ceremony Wednesday to elevate five new cardinals. As Pell spoke to reporters, preparations were underway in St. Peter’s Square for a huge Mass that Pell had been expected to jointly celebrate, but he 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 has 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.

 They 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.

 A prolonged absence, however, would require Francis to make other provisions, since it is unclear if the office could, for example, issue the Holy See’s annual financial statement without Pell’s imprimateur.

 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.

 But he nevertheless became something of a scapegoat in Australia for all that went wrong with the Catholic Church in its mishandling of the sex abuse scandal. His flight to Rome to head Francis’ reform effort had been viewed by many of his critics as an attempt to avoid justice.

 The Australian public has been riveted by the investigation, and news of his charges sparked a media frenzy. Both the police announcement and Pell’s statement from the Vatican were carried live across the country.

 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.

 But actually proving the charges may be difficult. The prosecution must prove that the sex offenses occurred beyond a reasonable doubt, which can be difficult when so much time has passed, said Lisa Flynn, national manager of Shine Lawyers’ abuse law practice in Australia.

 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 “leftists” and “stupid.”

 Asked last year about the accusations against Pell, Francis said he would wait for Australian justice to take its course before speaking or casting judgment himself.

 It remained unclear if Pell would face a church trial stemming from the accusations. The Vatican has clear-cut guidelines about initiating a canonical investigation if there is a semblance of truth to sex abuse accusations against a cleric. In the case of a cardinal, it would fall to Francis himself to judge. Penalties for a guilty verdict in a church trial include defrocking.

 ___

 Gelineau reported from Sydney.</s>Cardinal George Pell, the most senior member of the Catholic Church in Australia, has been charged with multiple historical sexual assault offenses, police said Thursday.

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.

"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."

Pell currently serves as a top adviser to Pope Francis and the Vatican's top financial adviser. In 2013, he was named one of eight cardinals tasked with investigating ways to reform the church.

He will be required to appear in the Melbourne Magistrate's court on July 18th for a filing hearing. He is facing multiple charges and there are multiple complainants relating to those charges, police 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.

During a government inquiry in 2013, Pell apologized for the abuse as a witness and 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 is based in the Vatican and is reported to still be there, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Australia and the Vatican, which is located in Rome but independent of Italy, do not have an extradition treaty, according to Donald Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University.

But Rothwell believes Pell will return to Australia to face the charges, based on Pell's own comments and Pope Francis' commitment to acknowledging and atoning for the church's responsibility in the scandal.

"Given Cardinal Pell's very senior position in the church, I believe the Pope would expect the cardinal to return and face these charges," Rothwell said.</s>Clergy sexual abuse victims have called for Cardinal George Pell to be immediately stood down from his powerful Vatican post in the wake of historical sexual abuse charges being laid against him.

Victoria Police has confirmed Cardinal Pell, has been charged on summons over multiple allegations against multiple victims and is due to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a filing hearing.

Clergy sexual abuse victim Andrew Collins said it was incumbent on Pope Francis to stand down Cardinal Pell from his position as head of the Catholic church's finances.

"It is a defining moment for the church," Mr Collins said. "He should be stood from his role just as any person in any other organisation would be if they were charged with sexual abuse or any other serious crime. If he comes back, it's unprecedented because it shows the child sexual abuse scandal has gone right to the top of the church.

"If he doesn't return, it's going to really put pressure on the Pope to stand him down immediately."

Another victim Phil Nagle, from Ballarat in Victoria, said survivors were relieved that a decision had been made after months of uncertainty.

"There was a lot of fear among us because of his position of power that he may never be charged, but now we fear he will never come home," Mr Nagle said.

"It's George Pell. He is one of the most powerful Catholics in the world, but if this guy committed a crime, he needs to be held accountable for it, just like anyone else.

"It is now the responsibility of the Pope and Catholic Church to get Cardinal Pell extradited and brought back here however they can ... if that needs to be in a medical plane to look after his health, then that what needs to happen but it's time for him to come home."

Sexual abuse survivor Peter Blenkiron said it was important Cardinal Pell, as well as his alleged victims, were given a fair court process.

"The process of the law of the land must be followed," Mr Blenkiron said.

"A verdict must be concluded on the evidence and fact we cannot prematurely extrapolate guilty or not guilty.

"This is evidence the culture of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church is coming to a stop. It has to come to a stop, but our focus can't just be on one person, it's got to be on changing all institutions."

Sexual abuse survivor advocate Chrissie Foster, whose daughters Emma and Katie were raped by Melbourne paedophile priest Father Kevin O'Donnell when they were in primary school in the 1980s, welcomed the development, but said she had lost confidence in Cardinal Pell.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Cardinal Pell does not come back to Australia to face the charges," Ms Foster said. "In the past, Cardinal Pell has said he would produce documents to the Royal Commission and didn't. He said he'd come back to testify before the Royal Commission and he didn't."</s>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, is the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal.

Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said police have summonsed Pell to appear in an Australian court to face multiple charges of “historic sexual 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.

Pell has repeatedly denied all abuse allegations made against him. The Catholic Church in Australia, which issues statements on Pell’s behalf, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.

“It is important to note that none of the allegations that have been made against Cardinal Pell have, obviously, been tested in any court yet,” Patton told reporters in Melbourne. “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.

For years, Pell has faced allegations that he mishandled cases of clergy abuse when he was archbishop of Melbourne and, later, Sydney. His 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.

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.

Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican. That leaves two likely outcomes: Either Pell volunteers to return to Australia to fight the charges, or the Vatican could tell the cardinal to do so, said Donald Rothwell, an international law expert at the Australian National University.

“I would think that the pope would be very concerned to think that one of his cardinals, and someone who holds a high position within the Vatican government structure, is being wanted on criminal charges in Australia,” Rothwell said in a recent interview. “So if the pope was to say, ‘Well look, Cardinal Pell, I’d like you to return to Australia and mount a defense,’ I’m sure Cardinal Pell would probably follow that instruction. … In the case of someone like Cardinal Pell, the sway that the pope and the church has over him is much greater than the ordinary citizen.”

The charges put Pope Francis 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.”

When Francis was asked last year about the accusations against Pell, he said he wanted to wait for Australian justice to take its course before judging. “It’s true, there is a doubt,” he told reporters en route home from Poland. “We have to wait for justice and not first make a mediatic judgment — a judgment of gossip — because that won’t help.”

“Once justice has spoken, I will speak,” he said.

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.

It remains to be seen how Pell — and the pope — will respond to the developments.

Given Francis’ credibility is on the line, any decision to keep Pell on as prefect while facing charges would reflect poorly on Francis, given he remains one of the pope’s top advisers.

At the same time, the Vatican has a history of shielding its own: When Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in disgrace in 2002 over his cover-up of abuse in Boston, victims expressed outrage that St. John Paul II gave him a plum position as archpriest of a Rome basilica.

The transfer spared Law what would likely have been years of litigation and testimony in U.S. courts as victims sued the archdioceses for their abuse, though Law himself was never criminally charged with wrongdoing.

In the 1980s, the Vatican refused to cooperate with Italian investigators when one of its officials, Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus, was indicted over a banking scandal. The Vatican successfully cited his diplomatic immunity.</s>Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic and the third-ranking official in the Vatican, has been charged with multiple sexual offences by police.

The charges were served on Pell’s legal representatives in Melbourne on Thursday and they have been lodged also at Melbourne magistrates court. He has been ordered to appear at the court on 18 July.

“Cardinal Pell is facing multiple charges … and there are multiple complainants,” Victoria police’s deputy commissioner Shane Patton said. The charges were “historical sexual assault offences”.

In a statement released by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney 90 minutes after the charges were announced, Pell announced he would “return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name”.</s>Vatican Treasurer Cardinal George Pell said on Thursday that he will take a leave of absence from his post after Australian authorities charged him with multiple counts of sexual assault.

Victoria state police summoned Pell, 76, to appear in Australian court in July to face what they are calling “historical sexual assault offenses.”

Pell, who serves as Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser, denied the allegations in an appearance before reporters on Thursday, and said that the “matters have been under investigation now for two years.”

“There have been leaks to the media,” he said. “There has been relentless character assassination, relentless character assassination.”

Pell has not been asked to resign by Pope Francis, who has vowed zero tolerance for sexual-related offences. The pontiff granted Pell the leave of absence “so he can defend himself,” the Vatican said in a statement Thursday.

“The Holy See has learned with regret the news of charges filed in Australia against Card. George Pell for decades-old actions that have been attributed to him,” a statement from the church said. “The Holy Father, having been informed by Card. Pell, has granted the cardinal a leave of absence so he can defend himself.”

Pell, who was ordained as a priest more than 50 years ago, was appointed Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy for the Vatican in in 2014 under Pope Francis.

Pell is the highest-ranking Vatican official to face charges in the Catholic Church’s multi-year sex abuse scandal, according to the AP.

“I am looking forward finally to having my day in court,” Pell said on Thursday. “I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me.”

Pell voluntarily spoke with Australian police officials in Rome in 2016 in reference to alleged sexual assaults in Ballarat between 1976 and 1980 and in East Melbourne between 1996 and 2001.

The Vatican said Pell had “openly and repeatedly” condemned acts of abuse committed against minors, and noted his support for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Victoria Police charge Cardinal George Pell, the Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, and the third most senior official of the Catholic Church, with historic child sex offences. Pell will be required to attend hearings at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in Australia on July 19.