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Disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday for the sexual abuse of two boys in 1996 in a Melbourne cathedral.

Pell – once the Vatican’s chief financial officer and an adviser to Pope Francis – is the highest-ranking Catholic Church official to be convicted of molesting children.

He faced a maximum sentence of 50 years in jail.

Chief Judge Peter Kidd told the Melbourne court Pell’s actions had a “profound impact” on the life of the boy who survived his abuse and likely had a similar impact on the other boy, who later died of a heroin overdose.

He accused Pell of “callous indifference” to the suffering of the boys, who have not been named. Pell’s face remained solemn as he listened to an hour-long statement.

Last December, the now 77-year-old was found guilty on five charges relating to the sexual assault of two boys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.

The media was unable to report on the conviction until February because of a suppression order.

“There are 7 000 clergy planet-wide that are under charges for abuse of children,” said John Lawrence, a protester outside the court who said he was a victim of sexual abuse in the Church.

“I think it’s time that after this case they face the consequences.”

Several of the Care Leavers Australiasia Network, most of whom are survivors of abuse, said the sentence was “not enough” but they were happy Pell was going to prison.

One described the relatively lenient sentence as “a joke”. 

Angela Sdrinis, a Melbourne lawyer who has represented victims of abuse for more than two decades, said: “The conviction of George Pell shows victims of child sex abuse that no one is above the law”.

The judge started the proceedings by saying Pell was on trial and not the Catholic Church.

Pell is “entitled to the balanced and steady hand of justice”, Kidd told the court, lamenting a “lynch mob mentality” among some of the public.

“You are not to be made a scapegoat,” Kidd said.

Pell was Australia’s most senior Catholic as the Vatican’s treasurer – the third-highest ranking member of the Church -between February 2014 and when he was stood down by Pope Francis in August last year.

– Al Jazeera