The Catholic Church in Australia yesterday launched an inquiry into allegations that Sydney Archbishop George Pell molested a 12-year-old boy as a trainee priest.
The church said in a statement it had appointed a retired supreme court judge to investigate the claim which Dr Pell labelled a lie.
"To allege that I am personally implicated in this evil is a smear of the most vindictive kind," he said.
"The allegations against me are lies and I deny them totally and utterly. The alleged events never happened, I repeat emphatically, that the allegations are false,"
Dr Pell yesterday announced he would be taking leave during the inquiry to preserve the dignity of the church.
The anonymous man has so far refused to go to police. The Catholic Church's sexual abuse investigation unit, the National Committee for Professional Standards, announced the inquiry in a statement which revealed the abuse allegation. "The complainant alleges that when he was aged about 12 he was sexually molested by George Pell, then a trainee priest \" it said.
"The complainant was advised and encouraged to report the matter to the police, but at this stage has declined to do so." Dr Pell was accused earlier this year of trying to cover up sexual abuse by clergy, but the claims were not substantiated.
He admitted in June that he had offered Australian $50,000 (€30,600) to the family of two women abused as children by a convicted paedophile, Father Kevin O'Donnell, but maintains that the money was offered simply as compensation.
He also denied statements by an abuse victim, David Ridsdale, who maintains that Dr Pell asked him "what it will take to keep you quiet" when Mr Ridsdale came to him in 1993 with claims against Dr Pell's Catholic priest uncle.
Dr Pell has been no stranger to controversy. A hardline moral conservative and vociferous opponent of abortion, stem cell research and homosexuality, the Oxbridge-educated cleric became the focus of a wave of protests in recent years over his refusal to give communion to gay and lesbian Catholics.
The Catholic Church in Australia has been under fire for more than a decade as reports of sexual abuse by its clergy have emerged.
The Catholic Church, Australia's biggest, formally apologised to victims of sexual abuse in April 1996. The church has paid out millions of dollars in compensation to sexual abuse victims.
All of Australia's major churches have admitted that their clergy have sexually abused children.
A victims' support group said the investigation into sex abuse allegations against Archbishop Pell must be independent and transparent.
Ms Chris MacIsaac, president of Broken Rites - a non-denominational support group for victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in religious institutions - also reiterated a call for a royal commission into such abuses in churches.
Ms MacIsaac would not comment on the allegations against Dr Pell, but said any issue involving sexual abuse was significant. Neither would she say whether Dr Pell's accuser had sought assistance from Broken Rites or whether there had been any contact with the alleged victim.
"We can't comment on the individual case," she said. "We do believe it's significant. The issue of sexual abuse should be considered seriously." She said that during his term as Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Pell's approach to dealing with matters of sexual abuse became known as the "Pell process". - (AP, Guardian Service)