ROME
Telegraph (UK)
By Nick Squires, Rome 19 Feb 2016
The Vatican’s economy minister is reportedly being investigated on suspicion of sexually abusing altar boys when he was a priest.
George Pell, an Australian cardinal who as the Holy See’s finance chief is third in the hierarchy after Pope Francis, is the most senior Vatican figure to be accused of sexually abusing minors.
In a lengthy statement, he angrily denied the accusations, saying they were “utterly false”.
The Herald Sun newspaper, based in Melbourne, reported that a police taskforce in the state of Victoria has been investigating the 74-year-old cardinal over the last 12 months over allegations that he abused between five and 10 boys.
Cardinal Pell, the former Archbishop of Sydney, has long been accused of shielding predatory priests in Australia, but this is the first time that he has been accused of abusing children himself.
Australian police have compiled a dossier containing allegations that he committed “multiple offences” when he was a priest in the town of Ballarat in Victoria and later when he was archbishop of Melbourne, the Herald Sun reported.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.