AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
October 12, 2012

THE nation’s most powerful Catholic, George Pell, says a claim that he was present when a boy raped by a Christian Brother in regional Victoria described the incident to another priest is a “false and seriously misleading allegation” and that he was not in Australia at the time.

Responding to a submission by lawyer Vivian Waller to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the handling of alleged criminal abuse of children by religious and other organisations, Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, said he was studying at Oxford at the time of the alleged incident.

A statement issued by the archdiocese of Sydney said: “The claims made in relation to Cardinal Pell in a submission to the inquiry by Waller Legal are irresponsible, untrue and are absolutely rejected.

“These are the facts. The Cardinal was ordained a priest…