Fresh sex scandal rocks Catholics

Archbishop Pell vehemently denies the charges of sexual abuse

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The accusations of sexual abuse leveled at Sydney archbishop George Pell strike at the core of the moral authority of the Catholic church in Australia. (Full story)

With more than 5 million followers, Catholicism is the single most practiced religion in Australia and Pell, as archbishop of the Sydney diocese, is the most powerful churchman in the nation.

Moreover, Pell has adopted a high media profile on the issue of sexual abuse by clergy, as well as on other controversial issues such as homosexuality, abortion and stem cell research.

Pell has been accused of sexually molesting a 12-year-old boy more than 40 years ago when Pell was a trainee priest.

The complainant, who Australian media report has a long criminal history and a record of drug abuse, said Pell had repeatedly assaulted him while he attended a Catholic holiday camp.

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He said in his statement to the standards committee that Pell, who was known as "Big George", would "grab me from behind and molest me".

The complaint is now being investigated by a retired Supreme Court judge appointed by the Church's own National Committee for Professional Standards which has been established to investigate such cases.

The committee said in a statement on Tuesday night that it had urged the man many times to take his complaint to the police, but that he had declined to do so.

Pell has vehemently denied the charges.

"I have taken a leading role in condemning and exposing sexual abuse within the Catholic church in Australia," Pell told media.

No time limit

"To allege that I am now personally implicated in this evil is a smear of the most vindictive kind."

By promptly deciding to step down while the allegations against him are investigated, Pell has shown that he is willing to play by the rules on clergy abuse that he himself has set down.

No replacement for Pell, who previously was archbishop of the Melbourne diocese, has yet been named and it is not known how long the inquiry will take.

"We're hoping the process will get underway as soon as possible but at this stage we can't predict how long that will take," the co-chair of the standards committee, Brother Michael Hill, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio Wednesday.

The judge who heads the inquiry, Alec Southwell, had the authority to call witnesses as he saw fit "and at this stage we can't predict how long that might take," Hill said.