ROME -- The Catholic Church's child sexual-abuse scandal ensnared one of Pope Francis's top lieutenants on Thursday, underlining the halting progress the reformist pontiff has made in addressing decades of abuse by the clergy even as Cardinal George Pell declared himself innocent of the charges against him.
Pell, one of the most powerful officials in the Vatican, said he would return to his native Australia to fight multiple charges of sexual assault. He became the highest-ranking Vatican official to be formally accused by law enforcement when Australian police charged him earlier Thursday.
Advocates for victims of child abuse said that allowing Pell to face charges in Australia, rather than keeping him inside the Vatican City's walls, was already a major step for a church that might have shielded him in earlier years. But they also said that the cardinal's ability to remain in his post until Thursday, despite controversy about his role in the Australian church's years of abuse, was a sign that Francis had not ushered in a new era in one of the most painful chapters in modern Catholic history.
Speaking to reporters in the Vatican, Pell denounced "relentless character assassination" in the media.
"I repeat that I am innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me," said the 76-year-old cardinal, who until Thursday was in charge of overhauling the church's antiquated and opaque finances.
Pell, Australia's most senior Catholic prelate, has faced questions for years about his role in the Australian church's staggering scale of sexual abuse. But he had never been directly charged.
Australian officials did not offer exact details about the alleged crimes, saying that Pell has a right to due process.
Last year, Australia's state broadcaster interviewed two men who said Pell touched their genitals in the 1970s at a swimming pool in the cardinal's home city of Ballarat. Pell has denied the allegations.
Other allegations of sexual abuse by priests overseen by Pell have been lodged over many years.
The Vatican, meanwhile, said it had learned of the charges "with regret" and that Francis appreciated the cardinal's honesty and commitment during his three years working on reforming the Holy See's finances.
Spokesman Greg Burke noted in the statement to reporters that Pell had in the past "repeatedly condemned as immoral and intolerable" acts of abuse against minors.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton of Australia's Victoria state announced Thursday that Pell had been summoned to face multiple charges of "historical sexual assault offense."
He is scheduled to appear before a Melbourne court on July 18.
Pell has been dogged for years by questions of whether he was aware of sexual abuse by priests. In 2016, he testified, via video, to an Australian court over abuse of minors in Ballarat, where he was a priest.
Pell, who entered the priesthood in 1966, was an adviser to the Bishop of Ballarat through the 1970s before becoming the archbishop of first Melbourne, and then Sydney. He was chosen to overhaul the church's finances in 2014.
One victim of sexual abuse in Ballarat said Thursday that he did not feel any happiness at the charges against Pell, who was the episcopal vicar for education in the district in 1974, when the abuse against him took place.
"There is a commonality right around the world -- it has been a global phenomena," said Peter Blenkiron, who was sexually abused at St. Patrick's College in Ballarat. "We can't let any one person take the spotlight from what needs to happen."
Pell's guilt or innocence is less important than the need to reform the church globally to prevent future sexual abuse, Blenkiron said.
"There are so many families that have lost a parent and brothers and sisters. It is so raw in Ballarat," he said.
The allegations against Pell have split Australian society.
Former Prime Minister and prominent conservative Tony Abbott described the cardinal as a "very fine man indeed," reflecting a view among some members of the Catholic establishment that Pell is being held responsible by elements of the media and left-wing activists for abuse in the broader church.
A recently published book, The Cardinal, written by a journalist who has pursued Pell for years, was withdrawn from sale in Australia on Thursday after the charges were filed because of the legal risk it could influence a future jury.
The charges are "extraordinarily significant, because George Pell is a lightning rod in Australia for those who are for or against the Catholic Church," said the author, Louise Milligan.
The cardinal has faced several other allegations related to the Australian abuse situation, including that he sought to give financial aid to priests who had been jailed on pedophilia charges. The Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi claimed this year he found documents tying Pell to the jailed priests.
Pell denied the charges.
"We'll see how this papacy will try to cope, but this has been a deadly blow for the myth of Pope Francis' reforms," Fittipaldi said in an interview. "Francis has done some very important things, but the fight against pedophilia is not his priority."
Information for this article was contributed by Anthony Faiola, Paul Schemm and Brian Murphy of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/30/2017