Victoria Police have confirmed they've charged Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, with historical sexual assault offences.
"Cardinal Pell has been charged on summons and he is required to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on 18 July this year for a filing hearing," Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
The charges relate to multiple claims and multiple complainants.
'Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else'
The charges were served on Cardinal Pell's legal representatives in Melbourne and lodged at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Commissioner Patton stressed that none of the allegations had been tested in court yet.
"Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process and so therefore, it is important that the process is allowed to run its natural course."
Commissioner Patton said Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as any other defendant in the process.
"During the course of the investigation in relation to Cardinal Pell, there has been a lot of reporting in the media and speculation about the process that has been involved in the investigation and also the charging.
“I want to be perfectly clear, the process and procedures that are being followed in the charging of Cardinal Pell have been the same that have been applied in a whole range of historical sex offences whenever we investigate them.”
Victoria Minister for Housing Martin Foley said George Pell deserves the presumption of innocence, but the Catholic church "has a sorry record".
No extradition treaty with Victoria
Cardinal Pell is currently at the Vatican overseeing its finances within the Secretariat for the Economy.
It’s unclear whether he will return to Australia to face the charges.
Australia does not have an extradition treaty with the Vatican, potentially complicating matters.
Victoria Police did not detail the abuse allegations but earlier media reports said police were considering complaints by two men, now in their 40s.
The pair had made allegations about inappropriate touching while they were playing a game at a pool in Ballarat in the late 70s.
Pell: I stand by everything I have said
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher has said Cardinal Pell, who has co-operated with multiple police, parliamentary and royal commission investigations, is the victim of relentless character attacks.
Last year, three members of Victoria Police travelled to Rome and interviewed Cardinal George Pell regarding allegations of sexual assault.
Speaking in Rome earlier this year, Cardinal Pell professed his innocence.
“I stand by everything I have said at the royal commission [into institutional responses to child sexual abuse] and in other places," he said.
"We have to respect due process, wait until it is concluded and obviously I will continue to co-operate fully."
The child seuxal abuse royal commission is yet to hand down its official findings into how church figures, including Cardinal Pell, handled past allegations of child abuse in Victoria's Ballarat Diocese and the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
