AUSTRALIA
GlobalPost

Agence France-Presse
Feb 19, 2016

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell on Friday claimed he was the victim of a smear campaign after it emerged that Australian police are investigating claims he groomed and abused five to 10 boys during his time as a priest.

“The allegations are without foundation and utterly false,” a statement issued by Pell’s office in Rome said after Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper reported that a police taskforce had been investigating him for over a year over allegations that he abused the boys.

The Herald Sun’s revelations prompted global abuse survivors’ network SNAP to call on Pope Francis to immediately suspend the 74-year-old from his senior role in the Vatican’s bureaucracy.

“Over a year, more than a dozen cops and they say they’ve found five or 10 alleged victims of Pope Francis’s top aide,” SNAP spokesperson Joelle Casteix said.

“That’s pretty credible…