by Daniel DE CARTERET
Agence France Presse

MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP) — A crucial hearing opened in Melbourne Monday to determine if one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, Cardinal George Pell, will stand trial on multiple historical sexual offense charges.

The 76-year-old, the most senior Catholic cleric to be charged with criminal offenses linked to the Church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal, denies all the claims.

He has taken leave from his role as Vatican finance chief to fight the charges, which relate to incidents that allegedly occurred long ago. Their exact details and nature have not been made public, other than they involve “multiple complainants”.

Pell, in a beige jacket on top of a black shirt with a clerical collar, arrived by car and was escorted by dozens of police as he made his way up the steps and into the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

This was in contrast to his two previous appearances at preliminary hearings — in July and October last year — when he walked from his nearby lawyer’s office in chaotic scenes as he was mobbed by the media.

A small group of protesters and supporters, holding placards and signs, were outside the court.

Up to 50 witnesses could be called during the committal hearing, where they will give their accounts and be cross-examined by Pell’s legal team. The hearings are due to last four weeks.

Magistrate Belinda Wallington will then decide if there is sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial.

The court was open to the media for some 30 minutes before the hearing was adjourned until the afternoon when evidence from Pell’s accusers is due to begin via video-link in closed proceedings.

The brief session, during which Pell coughed and cleaned his glasses but said nothing, dealt with procedural matters, including the formal withdrawal of one charge against the former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop after his accuser died.

His barrister Robert Richter also requested that someone is allowed to accompany Pell to court “in regard to the Cardinal’s age and medical condition”.

Pell was excused from giving evidence in person to a session of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016 due to a heart ailment.

‘A decent man’

Pell does not have to formally enter a plea unless committed to stand trial, although he instructed his lawyer from the outset to make clear he intended to plead not guilty.

“For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has,” Richter said in July.

Pell’s defense team said last week that part of their cross-examination would be to determine when the accusers first disclosed he had allegedly abused them, as they try to prove the allegations were a “recent invention”.

Since his last appearance, the cardinal’s lawyers have been denied requests for medical records of the complainants, with the magistrate saying disclosure could be harmful.

His case has coincided with a national inquiry into child sexual abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional pedophilia.

The commission spoke to thousands of victims and heard claims of abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups, and schools.

Pell appeared before it three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome over the Church’s handling of complaints against pedophile priests.

Australia’s Catholic leaders have spoken out in support of him, describing Pell as a “thoroughly decent man”.

© Agence France-Presse