VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Carol Glatz Catholic News Service | Feb. 19, 2016
VATICAN CITY
Australian Cardinal George Pell called for an inquiry into the leaking of accusations that he is under police investigation for the alleged abuse of minors.
Calling the accusations “without foundation and utterly false,” the cardinal “strongly denies any wrongdoing. If the police wish to question him, he will cooperate, as he has with each and every public inquiry,” said a statement from the cardinal’s office in Rome Feb. 19.
“The cardinal understands that several media outlets have received confidential information leaked by someone within the Victorian police,” the government law enforcement agency in the Australian state of Victoria, the statement said.
“Given the serious nature of this conduct, the cardinal has called for a public inquiry to be conducted in relation to the actions of those elements of the Victorian police who are undermining the Royal Commission’s work,” it said. The Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is a government inquiry into church, state and other institutions’ response to the sexual abuse of children.
The cardinal also called on the state prime minister and police minister “to immediately investigate the leaking of these baseless allegations,” the statement said.
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