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Three days after Cardinal George Pell , Pope Francis’ chief financial adviser and Australia’s most senior Catholic, was charged with multiple counts of ‘historical sexual offences’, the Pope has fired the church’s chief of doctrine, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller.
The sacking of Mueller, the head of the Vatican office that processes and evaluates all cases of priests accused of raping or molesting minors, is coming days after the pontiff released Cardinal Pell, to return home to stand trial for alleged sexual assault.
“There were no differences of opinion between me and Pope Francis,” Mueller, an arch-conservative who had the ear of former pontiff Benedict XVI, told the German paper Allgemeine Zeitung.
Read also: Aide of Pope Francis slapped with multiple counts of ‘historical’ sexual abuse
Meanwhile, Cardinal Pearl who has returned home is expected to appear before a court in Melbourne to answer for the charges brought before him by Australian police.
According to Victoria state Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton, Pell has been summoned by the police to appear in an Australian court to face multiple charges of “historic sexual offences”, meaning offences that generally occurred some time ago.
When he appears in court, Pell will become the highest-ranking Vatican official to ever be charged in the church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal.