Australian Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, has been charged with sexual assault, according to multiple news reports Wednesday night.
Pell is Francis’ chief financial officer and Australia’s most senior Catholic.
According to the Associated Press, he is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be charged in the Catholic church’s long-standing sexual abuse scandal.
Shane Patton, the deputy police commissioner in the Australian state of Victoria, said police have summoned Pell to appear in court July 18 to face multiple charges of “historic sexual offenses,” which means actions that occurred awhile ago.
Pell has previously been accused in hearings before Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of mishandling cases of abuse against clergy members. The New York Times reported there have been other allegations against Pell that he sexually abused minors himself early in his priesthood and continued to do so until he became archbishop of Melbourne.
Pell has denied the accusations, but last year he testified to the commission that the Catholic Church had made “enormous mistakes” in overlooking acts of sexual abuse within its ranks.
