MANILA, Philippines — Disgraced Catholic Cardinal George Pell was given a final avenue to appeal against his convictions for molesting two 13-year-old choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s.

Justice Michelle Gordon said in a brief procedural statement that Australia’s High Court had given “special leave to appeal” to the 78-year-old former Vatican treasurer his convictions for child abuse.

Pell, currently serving a six-year term, is the most senior Catholic to go to prison in the midst of a swath of cases of child abuse against clergy around the world. (Online/Marian Andrei Sinamban/IAMIGO/CNS)