A group of Australian Catholics have set-up a private fund to help Cardinal George Pell, Vatican financial chief and Australia’s most senior prelate, finance his legal battle against charges of sexual abuses.
Last week, the Australian Cardinal was charged by the Victoria police with multiple historical sexual offences.
Precise details of the charges made against Pell may not be known until the court hearing scheduled for 26 July, according to Australian police.
A bank account has been set up for donations to help Cardinal Pell when he returns to Melbourne from Rome to fight the charges, News Corp Australia reported on 2 June.
The director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a Melbourne-based think tank, John Roskam said that he was sent an account number for a fund for people wanting to assist Cardinal Pell with his legal bills.
Roskam, himself a Catholic, has passed on the account details to other Catholics in an effort to raise funds for what is likely to be a costly legal battle.
The fund, Roskam said, demonstrates that there are people who support Pell and “want to give him the opportunity to clear his name."
News of the fund comes after Sydney Archbishop, Anthony Fisher, Cardinal Pell’s successor in that post, said that although the archdiocese assist with Pell’s accommodation during his time in Australia, they will not be contributing to his litigations costs.
"While the Archdiocese will assist with the Cardinal's accommodation and support as it would for any of its bishops or priests, it is not responsible for the Cardinal's legal bills arising from these matters," Archbishop Fisher said in a press release published last Thursday morning.
Cardinal Pell has strenuously denied the accusations, and insisted that he is innocent. In a statement given last week, he welcomed the court hearing – which is to be held on 18 July – as a chance to “have my day in court” in order to “clear my name.”
Pope Francis, who chose Cardinal Pell to head-up the financial and economic reforms within the Holy See, has given Australia’s most senior prelate a leave of absence from his role.
Pell is the highest-ranking Church figure ever to be formally charged with such offences.
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