SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Sydney Archbishop George Pell, has been cleared of sex abuse allegations, the church said Monday.
Pell was accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy in 1961 at a camp on the southern Phillip Island. He always denied the claim.
An independent inquiry by former judge Alec Southwell dismissed the complaint by a man who claimed he had been sexually abused on several occasions by Pell, who was a trainee priest at the time.
Southwell's report, posted on the Australian Catholic Church's Web site, said he was "not satisfied that the complaint has been established" against Pell.
Pell said he was grateful the inquiry exonerated him and said he relied on prayer to get him through the past few months.
"When a person is under extreme pressure, personal values may crumble," he told reporters in Sydney. "However, my Catholic convictions sustained me during these dark weeks."
The judge said it was impossible to produce forensic evidence backing up the allegation because if the delay between the alleged abuse and the complaint, which was made earlier this year.
Southwell also cited Pell's vehement denial of the allegation and "some valid criticism of the complainant's credibility," as reasons for clearing Pell.
Pell stood down from his position as Sydney's archbishop immediately after the allegations were made against him, but insisted he was innocent. He has resumed his duties at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, where he officiated at a midday Mass on Monday.
He described the claim as "a smear of the most vindictive kind."
Peter Ward, a lawyer for the accuser, whose name has not been released, said his client was satisfied with the inquiry and would not take the allegations further.
Pell has been surrounded by controversy since being appointed Sydney's archbishop in May 2001.
Earlier this year, he was forced to explain comments he made to a conference in Canada, where a newspaper quoted him as saying abortion was a worse crime than child abuse by priests.
He later contended he was quoted out of context and released a statement saying sexual abuse of children was a grave moral scandal, as was abortion.
He also resisted calls for his resignation earlier this year after he admitted on a current affairs program that he offered a family thousands of dollars in exchange for the family's promise not to sue the church over claims that their two daughters were sexually abused by a priest for six years.
He denied the money was intended to buy the family's silence.
Pell's appointment as archbishop of Sydney angered the city's large gay community because he has refused to give communion to homosexuals and once called homosexuality "a greater health hazard than smoking."