<div align="justify">Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell was today charged with multiple child sex offences in Australia, police said.<br /><br />Pell, the country's most senior Catholic cleric, was interviewed in Rome by Australian police last October over the allegations which he strongly denies.<br /><br />"Victoria Police have charged Cardinal George Pell with historical sexual assault offences," Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters.<br /><br />"There are multiple complainants relating to those charges."<br /><br />Patton said the 76-year-old was charged on summons and was required to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a hearing.<br /><br />Patton would not take any questions, citing the need to preserve the integrity of the judicial process. The Pell charges came at the final stages of a long- running national inquiry into institutional responses to child sex abuse, which was ordered by the government in 2012.<br /><br />The cardinal has appeared before the royal commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link, during which he admitted that he "mucked up" in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.<br /><br />Pell was ordained in Rome in 1966 before returning to Australia in 1971 and rising to become the nation's top Catholic official.<br /><br />He left for the Vatican in 2014 after being hand-picked by Pope Francis to make the church's finances more transparent.</div>
<div align="justify">Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell was today charged with multiple child sex offences in Australia, police said.<br /><br />Pell, the country's most senior Catholic cleric, was interviewed in Rome by Australian police last October over the allegations which he strongly denies.<br /><br />"Victoria Police have charged Cardinal George Pell with historical sexual assault offences," Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters.<br /><br />"There are multiple complainants relating to those charges."<br /><br />Patton said the 76-year-old was charged on summons and was required to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 18 for a hearing.<br /><br />Patton would not take any questions, citing the need to preserve the integrity of the judicial process. The Pell charges came at the final stages of a long- running national inquiry into institutional responses to child sex abuse, which was ordered by the government in 2012.<br /><br />The cardinal has appeared before the royal commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link, during which he admitted that he "mucked up" in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.<br /><br />Pell was ordained in Rome in 1966 before returning to Australia in 1971 and rising to become the nation's top Catholic official.<br /><br />He left for the Vatican in 2014 after being hand-picked by Pope Francis to make the church's finances more transparent.</div>