27 Feb 2019

Vatican's 'third in command' Pell guilty of child sex abuse

From Morning Report, 7:22 am on 27 February 2019

The Australian public has now learned that Catholic Cardinal George Pell was found guilty of sexual offences against two choirboys in the 1990s. Pell, dubbed the Vatican's 'third in command', is the highest ranking Catholic ever to be convicted of sexual abuse. News of his conviction had been suppressed in Australia to ensure he could receive a fair trial on yet more sex abuse charges against boys. It comes just days after an unprecedented summit at the Vatican on clerical sexual abuse where Pope Francis called guilty clergy 'tools of Satan'. Our correspondent in Rome is Elise Harris from the Catholic news website Crux Now.