World
Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric Cardinal George Pell said the allegations that he sexually abused children were totally untrue and a part of a “scandalous smear campaign” against him. Police in Victoria have been investigating multiple allegations against Cardinal Pell, including that he inappropriately touched two children in a public pool in Ballarat in the late 1970s.
The allegations have drawn global attention after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (A.B.C.) aired details of alleged abuses on its program, named 7.30, writes the BBC. The broadcaster said that the information contained in its program was gathered by on-the-ground journalism over the course of months and has not been leaked by police.
Cardinal Pell’s office said in a statement that the allegations lacked any credibility, the reason why they were not pursued by the Royal Commission, reports ABC News. However, the royal commission said that it probes only institutional responses to child abuse and forwards any new complaints of clergy abuse to police.
Cardinal Pell was reportedly living in a seminary with a notorious pedophile priest, Gerald Ridsdale, in the early 1970s. Earlier in 2002, a man approached the Church claiming that Cardinal Pell had sexually abused him when he was a 12-year-old boy.
