The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, is to be called before the Victorian child sex abuse inquiry to explain his and the church's role in the scandal, reports The Australian.
Cardinal Pell will be called as the Victorian inquiry plans to hand over thousands of pages of information to the sex abuse royal commission.
Committee members in Victoria plan to ask Cardinal Pell to give evidence once expert witnesses and victims have laid out the extent of the problem that has gripped the church and other denominations.
Cardinal Pell has close links to the Catholic Church's Ballarat diocese.
The Australian has been told the parliamentary committee will soon return to Ballarat to hear victims' evidence.
Cardinal Pell was one of the architects of the church's response to the abuse scandal while serving as archbishop of the Melbourne diocese.
Sources said the Victorian investigation had been carefully constructed so that bodies such as the Catholic Church would be questioned last, when all the evidence had been collated.
FULL STORY Cardinal Pell to be called before Victorian abuse inquiry (Australian)