TWO priests are going on trial at the Vatican on Thursday in the first criminal prosecutions related to paedophilia to take place in the city state itself.

One is accused of sexually abusing an altar boy in St Peter’s Basilica and the other of covering up the incident.

The accusations against alleged abuser Gabriele Martinelli and Enrico Radice, then rector of the St Pius X youth seminary, have been dismissed as “mud” and “calumny” by the order that runs it, Opera Don Folchi.

The trial comes as Pope Francis publicly met Australian Cardinal George Pell for the first time following his acquittal on sex abuse charges that lie at the heart of an international financial scandal. The Holy See released video footage of their meeting.

Cardinal Pell served 13 months in jail after being convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing two boys in the 1990s, but the conviction was overturned. 

Prior to his return to Australia to face trial, he had headed the Vatican’s economic department and presided over an attempted crackdown on sleaze and money-laundering which brought him into conflict with curia insiders, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was sacked by the Pope last month on charges of embezzling Vatican funds.

Italian reports that Cardinal Becciu oversaw the transfer of €700,000 (£600,000) to a mystery Australian account at the time Cardinal Pell faced charges have prompted the latter’s lawyer to call for a full investigation.

Cardinal Pell has stated that unnamed “Vatican officials” believe the sex abuse charges were related to his attempt to clean up the Church’s notoriously crime-ridden finances.