Cardinal Pell Answers Aussie Police Inquiry

America
November 4, 2016

http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/cardinal-pell-answers-aussie-police-inquiry

Australian Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, is pictured in a 2014 photo in Sydney. Australian police questioned Cardinal Pell in Rome regarding accusations of alleged sexual abuse. (CNS photo/Jane Dempster, EPA)

Australian police questioned Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, in Rome regarding accusations of sexual abuse. Cardinal Pell was “voluntarily interviewed” by Victoria police in late October, said a statement on Oct. 26 from the cardinal’s office. “The cardinal repeats his previous rejection of all and every allegation of sexual abuse and will continue to cooperate with Victoria police until the investigation is finalized,” the statement said. Allegations surfaced in July in a report by Australia’s ABC News featuring several people who accused Cardinal Pell of sexual assault; at least one of the accusations had been found to be unsubstantiated by an Australian court in 2002. Cardinal Pell dismissed the accusations as “nothing more than a scandalous smear campaign,” and a statement issued by his office said that “claims that he has sexually abused anyone, in any place, at any time in his life are totally untrue and completely wrong.”