Cardinal George Pell is one of Pope Francis' top advisors and has been tasked with cleaning up the Vatican Bank after several scandals.
He is Australia's top Catholic cleric and the country's ABC 7.30 programme has claimed he is the focus of multiple child abuse allegations.
Cardinal Pell's team called the accusations "totally untrue and utterly wrong".
The programme says the claims range from the 1970s to the 1990s and have been under review by police for a year.
One allegation comes from when Cardinal Pell was the Archbishop of Melbourne.
All of the accusations have been sent to Australia's Office of Public Prosecutions for review, ABC said.
The broadcaster claims to have seen eight statements by alleged victims that were given to police.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told ABC the investigation was on going and he would be willing to travel to the Vatican to interview the cardinal.
This had "not been put as necessary to me at this point in time," he added.
An independent inquiry into child abuse is currently being held in Australia and Cardinal Pell has appeared before the panel on more than one occasion.
He's been forced to defend his handling of allegations of abuse made towards clergy under his command.
In a statement Cardinal Pell accused ABC of "a scandalous smear campaign" and said he "emphatically and unequivocally rejects any allegations of sexual abuse".
"The Cardinal does not wish to cause any distress to any victim of abuse.
"However, claims that he has sexually abused anyone, in any place, at any time in his life are totally untrue and completely wrong.
"If there was any credibility in any of these claims, they would have been pursued by the Royal Commission by now.
"No request has been made to interview Cardinal Pell nor has he received any details of these claims from the police or anyone.
"Cardinal Pell was the first Catholic Bishop to confront the evil of clerical child sexual abuse and implement the first program to assist victims when he introduced the Melbourne Response in 1996.
"He has apologised to victims of abuse on behalf of the Church many times and has met with many victims personally.
"He expresses regret that the sensationalist attention given to these unfounded and untrue claims might cause distress to genuine victims and he encourages anyone with any legitimate complaint to pursue it through the correct channels."
