Archbishop accused of child molesting

last updated 8 January 2015

Sydney, Australia

George Pell, the Catholic archbishop of Sydney, resigned this week over accusations that he molested a boy 40 years ago when he was a trainee priest. An unnamed man, now in his 50s, said Pell frequently groped him at church camp. The man said he never reported the incidents and did not know that the counselor he knew as “Big George” had become an archbishop until recently, when he recognized the priest on television. Pell called the charges “a smear of the most vindictive kind” and insisted “the alleged events never happened.” But he said that, for the good of the church, he would step down pending an inquiry. Australia has been struggling with church pedophilia scandals for months, and Pell has been criticized for saying that priestly sex abuse of children was less of a sin than abortion.