VATICAN CITY
Catholic World Report
Vatican City, Feb 19, 2016 / 10:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Friday Cardinal George Pell forcefully denied an alleged police investigation’s claim of “multiple offenses” of child sexual abuse, calling the accusations patently untrue.
“The allegations are without foundation and utterly false,” a Feb. 19 statement from Cardinal Pell’s office read.
The timing of the media leak on the alleged investigation “is clearly designed to do maximum damage to the Cardinal and the Catholic Church and undermines the work of the Royal Commission,” it said.
Cardinal Pell is a member of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis and a past archbishop of the Sydney and Melbourne archdioceses. He is also the prefect of the newly formed Secretariat for the Economy which is overseeing Vatican finances.
He is scheduled to testify before Australia’s Royal Commission Feb. 29 regarding claims that surfaced last year accusing the cardinal of moving “known pedophile” Gerald Ridsdale, of bribing a victim of the later-defrocked priest, and of ignoring a victim’s complaint.
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