Cardinal George Pell convicted of child sex abuse


A jury in Melbourne has found Cardinal George Pell, Australia's most senior Catholic and the Vatican's economy minister, guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in 1996.
The 77-year-old cleric was also found guilty of indecently assaulting one of the teens a month later. One of the victims, now 34, testified in court. The other died in 2014 of a heroin overdose. The jury reached its decision on Dec. 11, but the court ordered that the verdict and details of the case stay under wraps until now. Pell faces up to 50 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Pell is the Catholic Church's most senior official to be convicted of sexual abuse. In December, the Vatican announced Pell had been removed from Pope Francis' council of advisers.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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