Australian Police Interrogate Vatican Treasurer Cardinal George Pell over Sexual Abuse Claims
By Lara Rebello
Australia's police have questioned cardinal George Pell with regards to sexual abuse allegations made against him. Three Victoria state officials travelled to Rome where they met with the Vatican treasurer who denied all claims. A police spokeswoman said in a statement on 26 October that the 75-year-old priest "voluntarily participated in an interview" and that "as a result of the interview, further investigations are continuing." The cardinal's office released a statement of its own stating: "The cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to co-operate with Victoria Police until the investigation is finalised. The Cardinal has no further comment at this time." Pell, who was the archbishop in Australia before moving on to higher roles in the Vatican, is being accused of supposedly exposing himself to three young boys at Torquay Life Saving Club in the summer of 1986 or 1987. In another case, two former St Alipius students told ABC that Pell allegedly touched their genitals while swimming with them at the Eureka pool in Ballarat in 1978-1979, during which time he was the episcopal vicar for education at the diocese there. Pell has dismissed all allegations as a "smear campaign" against him and the Catholic Church. Earlier this year he testified at an Australian government inquiry into institutional child abuse, during which he admitted that the Roman Catholic Church had made "catastrophic" mistakes in handling reports of abuse. He had previously been accused of mishandling cases of abusive clergy when he was archbishop of Melbourne and later Sydney, by simply shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish and over-relying on counselling to solve the problem.
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