Cardinal to stand trial on 'historical' sex offenses

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May 1, 2018 6:18 AM

MELBOURNE, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third-highest-ranking official, must stand trial on several charges of sexual abuse, an Australian court ruled Tuesday, promising to prolong a case that has already dragged on for months and which many see as a moment of reckoning for a church racked by scandal.

Belinda Wallington, a Melbourne magistrate, found there was sufficient evidence for prosecutors to bring the cardinal’s case to trial, ending a two-month pretrial hearing, in which witnesses described abuse they said took place decades ago.

But the vast majority of charges against the cardinal were either withdrawn or dismissed, including several of the most serious allegations, which were said to have taken place in a playground, on an altar, on a mountaintop and during a 1970s screening of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in Ballarat, his hometown.

Pell, 76, is the Vatican’s de facto finance chief and the most senior Roman Catholic official to be charged with crimes of sexual abuse. When asked to enter a plea, the cardinal said “not guilty.” He was ordered to surrender his passport.

The cardinal has been accused of “historical sexual offenses,” meaning they took place decades ago, but the details of the criminal complaint, including the identities of his accusers, have not been made public.

Robert Richter, the cardinal’s lawyer, said last year there was “voluminous” evidence to prove that “what was alleged is impossible.” Richter argued that Pell was being targeted for the worldwide failing of the Catholic Church to protect victims of abuse.

Pell was accused in 2016 in hearings before Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of mishandling misconduct cases against clergy members while he served as the leader of the Archdioceses of Melbourne and Sydney. Then, in 2017, allegations surfaced that he had himself been involved in abuse beginning early in his priesthood and continuing until he became archbishop of Melbourne.

“The trial could be up to a year away,” said Judy Courtin, a lawyer and advocate who has represented sexual abuse victims.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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