A father is suing for damages for the nervous shock he suffered when he learned of allegations his son had been abused.

The New South Wales Police Force said on Tuesday it has rejected an application from a Sydney-based gay rights group for a permit to protest outside the cathedral on Thursday due to safety concerns.

Pell's return follows Francis last week firing one of the cardinal's most powerful opponents, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, over a financial scandal.

Cardinal Pell was formerly Pope Francis’ finance minister and at one time the third-highest ranking cleric in the Vatican.

Australia’s highest court on Tuesday will judge Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against convictions for molesting two teenage choirboys more than two decades ago.

The decision by the High Court of Australia comes nearly a year after a unanimous jury found Pope Francis’ former finance minister guilty of molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the late 1990s.

Cardinal Pell would walk free if the three judges acquit him of the five convictions.

Cardinal George Pell's lawyers argued for more than five hours that the five verdicts against Pell were "unsafe and unsatisfactory" and should be overturned.

The most senior Catholic found guilty of child sex abuse will ask an Australian appeals court on Wednesday to reverse convictions on charges of molesting two choirboys in a cathedral more than 20 years ago as hundreds of worshippers streamed from Masses.

Reporting in any format accessible from Australia about the former Vatican economy chief's convictions in a Melbourne court in December was banned by a judge's suppression order that was only lifted in February.