Catholic Church in fresh abuse row

Dr George Pell stands accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy when he was a trainee priest in the Archdiocese of Melbourne 40 years ago.

Dr Pell immediately denied the allegations, saying he was confident of clearing his name.

"I deny them totally and utterly," he said in a statement.

A retired Supreme Court judge, Alec Southwell, has been appointed to carry out an independent investigation of the allegation.

No police involvement

Dr Pell said he had taken a lead in exposing sexual abuse inside Australia's Catholic Church, setting up the first independent commission to look into the problem.

"To allege that I am personally implicated in this evil is a smear of the most vindictive kind... The alleged events never happened, I repeat emphatically, that the allegations are false," Dr Pell said.

But he added that to preserve the dignity of the Catholic church and his office of archbishop he would take leave while the investigation was conducted.

"I will, of course, co-operate with this independent inquiry in every way possible - frankly, openly, and unreservedly," Dr Pell added.

The Catholic Church's sexual abuse investigation team, the National Committee for Professional Standards, said that the man making the allegation was encouraged to go to the police but had not done so.

Worldwide, the Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of abuse allegations in recent months and Australia has been no exception.

Reports of sexual abuse by clergy in Australia have been emerging for more than a decade and millions of dollars have been paid out to victims in compensation.

In June, Dr Pell said that up to 90 priests and brothers had been convicted of sexual abuse in the past six years in Australia.

Controversial figure

Dr Pell was at the centre of controversy last month when attending the World Youth Day forum in Canada.

A Canadian newspaper claimed that Dr Pell told the audience that abortion was worse than priests sexually abusing youngsters "because (abortion) is always a destruction of human life".

He sparked an outcry earlier this year during an interview on an Australian current affairs programme when he said he had offered money to a family who said their daughters had been abused by a priest.

Dr Pell later said that the money was not intended to buy the victim's silence.