Cardinal Pell, Vatican number three, convicted of pedophilia "Diario The capital of La Plata

MELBOURNE, Australia – Australian Cardinal George Pell, number three at the Vatican, has been found guilty of badual badault on minors, a Melbourne court said Tuesday, making him the highest official in the Catholic Church , convicted of pedophilia. .

The Melbourne court has declared the 77-year-old cardinal guilty of badual badault and four other indecent badaults on two boys of the altar aged 12 and 13 for events that occurred. in the St. Patrick's sacristy of Melbourne in the 1990s.

The prelate initially rejected these accusations and the jury had not yet rendered its decision at a first trial in September, but had been convicted at a new trial on December 11.

The Melbourne court then pbaded a "suppression order" prohibiting the media from mentioning the case, on pain of prosecution.

This forced silence was imposed in order to protect the jury from a second trial in which Cardinal Pell was to be tried for other alleged crimes.

However, the prosecution decided to abandon the second trial, which led to Tuesday's lifting of media silence on the first case and allowing it to announce the verdict of guilty.

"Cardinal George Pell has always maintained his innocence and continues to do so," said a statement released Tuesday by his lawyers, who announced that they have appealed.

The text also notes that several charges and charges against Pell have been dropped or abandoned.

"The flesh in hell"

One of the boys from the altar killed by Pell died in 2014. The other said in a statement released Tuesday by his lawyer that the court process is stressful and "not over yet".

"Like many survivors, I experienced shame, loneliness, depression, and hardship." Like many survivors, it took me years to understand the impact that it had on my life. life, "said the victim, who has not been publicly identified.

At the gates of the courthouse, advocates of other victims of abuse received Pell with cries of "monster" and "hell", leaving him at the end of the hearing.

Another hearing before sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday.

His conviction represents a new shock for the Church, just two days after the end of a historic summit on pederasty.

"We will take all possible measures so that such crimes do not happen again," said Francisco in his closing statements at the meeting.

But critics say the institution is too slowly tackling a global problem that stretches back at least several decades ago.

A few days after Pell's secret conviction, the Church announced that he had been removed from the group of cardinals that make up the cabinet of the pope and his closest advisers.

But on paper, he continues to appear at the head of the Secretariat for the Economy of the Holy See, the number three Vatican, a position from which he obtained permission to defend himself during the trial.

Pell's case provoked turmoil in Australia, where previously he had been praised by a former prime minister and was leading conservative voices on issues such as gay marriage and climate change.

Pell denied for decades committing or hiding badual abuse, but acknowledged that he had "cheated" in his dealings with pedophile priests in the state of Victoria.

A royal commission of inquiry into child abuse said in a report last year that tens of thousands of children had been victims of badual abuse in churches, orphanages , sports clubs, youth groups and schools in Australia for generations, in a country where one in five is Catholic, or about five million people.

Prior to Pell, the highest case of badual abuse in the Church in Australia was that of the former Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, who had been convicted the year last to have concealed the crimes of a pedophile priest in the 1970s. December

AFP-NA.