High-ranking Australian Bishop Christopher Saunders has been charged with rape and a string of sex offences - some against children - after a long-running investigation.
The 74-year-old was arrested in the Western Australian town of Broome on Wednesday.
Mr Saunders was refused bail, and will face 19 counts in court on Thursday.
He is one of the most senior Catholics in Australia to face charges of this nature.
The offences he is alleged to have committed include two counts of rape, 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault, and three counts of indecently dealing with a child under his authority.
First ordained in 1976, Mr Saunders has spent most of his career in the remote Kimberley region in the nation's north-west corner.
For years, he has faced dual police and internal church investigations over allegations of sexual abuse made by several Aboriginal men from communities in his parish.
The accusations were first aired in 2020, but the initial police investigation that followed was closed without charge.
However after a historic inquiry was ordered by the Pope - and its 200-page report subsequently leaked to media last year - police began a new probe.
Only a handful of Vos Estis Lux Mundi investigations have been undertaken around the world. Meaning "You Are the Light of the World" in Latin, Vos Estis inquiries were introduced in 2019 as a mechanism for combatting sexual abuse and investigating bishops and other high-ranking officials in the Catholic Church.
