FILE PHOTO: Cardinal George Pell attends news conference at the Vatican, June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
BALLARAT, Australia (Reuters) - One of the pope's top advisers, Cardinal George Pell, makes his first court appearance in Australia this week on charges of historic sex crimes, a bitter reminder for his home town reeling from more than a dozen abuse cases.
Pell, the Vatican's economy minister, last month became the most senior Catholic to be charged with sex crimes. He has vowed to fight the still-unspecified charges, calling them false and the result of a "relentless character assassination". He declined to respond to interview requests for this story.
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