Cardinal George Pell's Rome office says he will not seek to respond to allegations against him in a new biography released on Monday, "other than to restate that any allegations of child abuse made against him are completely false".
Fairfax Media reported on 13 May that 'Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell', by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Louise Milligan, contains allegations of abuse involving two choirboys at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne in the late 1990s while then Archbishop Pell was Archbishop of Melbourne.
Fairfax, publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age newspapers, said the book records the testimony of one alleged victim, a man now aged in his 30s, and the family of a second alleged victim, who died from a drug overdose in 2014. Soon after the alleged abuse took place, both boys asked to leave the choir, the book says.
The newspaper group also reported that the book contains new information about the child abuse cover-up within the Catholic Church in Australia, including allegations that Cardinal Pell - Prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy since 2014 and before that Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996-2001 and Archbishop of Sydney from 2001-14 - knew about paedophile priests earlier than he claimed.
The Cardinal's lawyers said at the weekend that publication of the book's allegations were a "deliberate attempt to influence the public opinion in a manner that would make it impossible for our client to receive a fair hearing in court should he be charged".
They said the allegations were false, "unjustifiable, scandalous, deliberate and calculated to cause the most shocking damage imaginable to Cardinal Pell".
Fairfax reported that a separate statement from Cardinal Pell's Rome office on Saturday night, in response to a request for comment on the allegations, accused the book's publisher, Melbourne University Press, and media organisations including Fairfax Media of "interfering with the course of justice".
"Cardinal Pell has not been notified by the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions or Victoria Police of the status of their investigations, which have been under way since at least February 2016," the statement said.
"Cardinal Pell will not seek to interfere in the course of justice by responding to the allegations made by MUP and media outlets today, other than to restate that any allegations of child abuse made against him are completely false. He repeats his vehement and consistent denials of any and all such accusations, and stands by all the evidence he has given to the Royal Commission."
In October 2016, three members of Victoria Police flew to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell, who took part voluntarily.
Last year, Ms Milligan revealed historic sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Pell in a report for ABC TV's 7.30 program.
The Cardinal has appeared three times, twice by video from Rome, at Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in public hearings on abuse in his home town of Ballarat, Melbourne and Sydney. He also appeared in person at a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations in 2013.
Cardinal Pell was photographed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday as the allegations came to light.
PICTURE: A screen image taken from the webcast live feed of Cardinal George Pell giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney in 2014. The commission examined the experiences of abuse survivor John Ellis when he went through the church's internal process, Towards Healing, and then civil litigation.
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