Two men have come forward in public, claiming Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, sexually abused them at a Victorian swimming pool in the 1970s.
The men's allegations have been aired on the ABC's 7.30 program.
7.30 says a special police task force has been looking into allegations of multiple complaints against the Cardinal for more than a year.
However, the allegations have not been tested in any court to date, and the Cardinal remains entitled to the presumption of innocence.
The two men, now in their 40s, were in primary school at the time of the alleged incidents.
They have told the ABC's 7:30 program that Cardinal Pell, then a priest, groped them at Ballarat's Eureka swimming pool during a two-year period in 1978 and 1979.
The ABC reports the men gave separate statements last year to a special Victoria Police task force on sexual abuse involving religious and non-governmental organisations.
One of the men, Lyndon Monument, has told the program he was reluctant to speak up, but he has now described alleged incidents that happened to him in the pool.
f1396a MONUMENT 15 secs
"His hands touching your genitals and stuff outside of your bathers or your shorts, and then that slowly became a hand down the front of the pants, or your bathers or whatever you call them."
Mr Monument says there were also incidents in the changing room at the pool.
f1396b MONUMENT 22 secs
"He'd undress, then he'd say to us to undress. So we'd undress, and then he'd just, yeah ... teach you how to dry your testicles, you know, and in between your bum and stuff like that."
(Reporter: "And while he was doing this, was he wearing clothes?")
"No."
