Pope Francis' finance chief, George Pell, says that he is ready to provide any form of evidence requested in relation to allegations of his involvement in the child sex abuse case of priest Gerarld Ridsdale in Australia.
Pell is the head of the Vatican's powerful Secretariat for Economy and is Australia's highest ranking Catholic clergyman. He is accused of bribing a victim into keeping the abuse quiet.
"Over the past 24 hours, I have been accused of being complicit in the moving of a known pedophile, of ignoring a victim's complaint and of bribery. These matters again require an immediate response and it is important to correct the record, particularly given the false and misleading headlines," Cardinal Pell said, according to Financial Times.
Ridsdale is accused of abusing at least 50 boys as he moved from parish to parish all over Victoria and, at one point, was in the same presbytery as Pell.
David Ridsdale, one of the boys allegedly abused by his own priest uncle, has reported that he confided the incident with Pell, as they are family friends. However, Pell only asked the boy how much it would cost to make him keep the incident a secret, according to Daily Mail.
Pell strongly denies the accusations.
In a letter to the commission's chair, Peter McClellan, Pell wrote, "Without wanting to pre-empt the Royal Commission in any way... I want to make it absolutely clear that I am willing to give evidence should the Commission request this, be it by statement, appearance by video link or attending personally," according to the Telegraph.
