MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press

March 12, 2019

By Rod McGuirk

The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse will be sentenced to prison Wednesday in an Australia landmark case that has polarized observers

The most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex abuse will be sentenced to prison in Australia on Wednesday in a landmark case that has polarized observers. Some described the prosecution as proof the church is no longer above the law, while others suspect Cardinal George Pell has been made a scapegoat for the church’s sins.

Pope Francis’ former finance minister, who had been described as the third-highest ranking Catholic in the Vatican, has spent two weeks in a Melbourne remand jail cell since a sentencing hearing in the Victoria state County Court on Feb. 27 in which his lawyers conceded the 77-year-old must spend time behind bars.

Pell had been…