Australian court upholds sex abuse verdict of Cardinal Pell

An Australian appeals court Wednesday upheld convictions against Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of sexually abusing children, in a decision cheered by scores of abuse survivors and victims' advocates demonstrating outside the court. A unanimous jury in December found Pope Francis' former finance minister guilty of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral more than two decades ago. The Victoria state Court of Appeal rejected his appeal in a two to one ruling, with the court's chief justice saying the majority found Pell's accuser to be a compelling "witness of truth." Pell's lawyers will examine the judgment and consider an appeal to the High Court, Australia's final arbiter, his spokeswoman Katrina Lee said. "Cardinal Pell is obviously disappointed with the decision," her statement said. The Vatican noted Pell had always maintained his innocence and had a right to appeal. It said its own investigation into Pell would await the outcome of any final appeal in Australia. "The Holy See confirms its closeness to the victims of sexual abuse and its commitment to pursue, through the competent ecclesiastical authorities, those members of the clergy who commit such abuse," a Vatican statement said, adding it respected the Australian judicial system. The Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference said all Australians must be equal under the law and it accepted the verdict. "I respectfully receive the court's decision and I encourage everyone to do the same," Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli said in a statement. Pell was sentenced to six years in prison in March and is no longer a member of Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals or a Vatican official. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said soon after the appeal was rejected that Pell would be stripped of his Order of Australia honor. Pell, 78, showed no emotion when Chief Justice Anne Ferguson read the verdict to a packed courtroom but bowed his head moments later. He wore a cleric's collar but not his cardinal's ring. Pell had arrived at the court in a prison van and was handcuffed as he was led away by a guard. Clerical sexual abuse and the Catholic Church's handling of such cases worldwide have thrown Francis' papacy into turmoil. In a little more than a year, the pope has acknowledged he made "grave errors" in Chile's worst cover-up, Pell was convicted of abuse, a French cardinal was convicted of failing to report a pedophile, and a third cardinal, former US church leader Theodore McCarrick, was defrocked after a Vatican investigation determined he molested children and adults. CJ Ferguson said she and President of the Court of Appeal Chris Maxwell "decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal Pell was guilty." The two judges "accepted the prosecution's submission that the complainant was a very compelling witness, clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth," CJ Ferguson said. The dissenting judge, Mark Weinberg, "could not exclude as a reasonable possibility that some of what the complainant said was concocted," particularly in relation to the charge that Pell had squeezed the boy's genitals and shoved him against a cathedral corridor wall as they passed in the midst of the choir moments after a Mass, she said. "Justice Weinberg found that the complainant's account of the second incident was entirely implausible and quite unconvincing," CJ Ferguson said. The full, 325-page ruling was published after she summarised the court's findings. One of the choirboys, identified by the sentencing judge as JJ, was the key prosecution witness. His friend, identified as MR, died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31 without ever complaining he had been abused. Neither victim can be named. JJ said he felt a responsibility to come forward after attending his friend's funeral. "The criminal process has been stressful. The journey has taken me to places that, in my darkest moments, I feared I could not return from," he said in a statement released by his lawyer."I am grateful for a legal system that everyone can believe in, where everybody is equal before the law and no one is above the law," he added.

Australian court upholds sex abuse verdict of Cardinal Pell

The Catholic Church's handling of clerical sexual abuse cases worldwide has thrown Pope Francis' papacy into turmoil