Last December a jury unanimously convicted
Pell of sexually abusing the boys.
Pell, dressed in a dark suit, occasionally bowed his head as Chief Justice Anne Ferguson dismissed his arguments and described his victim as "very compelling" and someone who "was clearly not a liar, was not a fantasist and was a witness of truth."
Supreme Court of Victoria Chief Justice Anne Ferguson said on Wednesday that two of the three judges hearing
Pell's appeal "decided that it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Cardinal
Pell was guilty of the offences charged" and rejected his appeal.
The abuse occurred months after
Pell became archbishop of Australia's second largest city and had set the world's first compensation arrangement for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
It concludes with recommendations for policymakers to improve the targeting of the
Pell Grant program.
In sentencing
Pell in March, Victorian County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd acknowledged that there was a real chance that Pope Francis' former finance minister could die in jail.
Pell, who continues to maintain his innocence, will try to appeal the verdict.
Each of the five convictions against
Pell carried a maximum possible sentence of 10 years each.
Everything is overshadowed by the forthcoming appeal."The father of the other victim, who died of a drug overdose in 2014, said through his lawyer that the length of
Pell's sentence was disappointing".
According to CNN, Cardinal
Pell was found guilty by an Australian court of one count of sexual abuse of a child and four counts of committing an indecent act with a child last December after a secret five-week trial.
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, Al-Jazeera reported.
Pell, who was Pope Francis's top financial adviser, was found guilty in court in Melbourne in his native Australia.
A jury in the Country Court of Victoria in Melbourne had found
Pell guilty on December 11 last year following a four-week trial.
The guilty verdict was made public on Tuesday following the lifting of a court suppression order on
Pell's 2018 trial, after a second abuse case against him was dropped by the prosecution.