What a letdown!

In April 2006, Bishop Mario Grech set up an ad hoc commission to investigate accusations of physical and psychological abuse of children in the care of the Church. The commission was set up in reaction to an edition of Bondi+ on TVM, during which a number of people alleged that they had been abused while in the care of religious in a Church home.

We had immediately praised the initiative, the speed with which it was taken and the relatively short time - just two months - assigned for its completion. It was very clear, we wrote, that Bishop Grech wanted to get to the bottom of the allegations as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, things did not work out the way Bishop Grech wished them. The commission, headed by the retired Judge Victor Caruana Colombo, seemed to have dragged its feet. On October 8, 2006 - four months after the deadline had passed - we wrote to ask what had happened since no report or decision about the subject was communicated to the public.

Fr Refalo, from the Gozo Curia, wrote to this newspaper informing readers, inter alia, that the task has not been finished and that the commission was granted an extension. Nine months have now gone by since that clarification, and biology teaches us that it is a long enough time to get a new life. But, publicly at least, nothing has been said more than a year since the original deadline of June 2006 was fixed.

When the members of the commission had accepted their task, they knew about the deadline that had been set. It is acceptable for a commission to ask for an extension if in the course of its work it finds out that the matter is more complex than originally thought. But the extension of more than a year of the original deadline is quite frankly unacceptable.

We cannot speak for Bishop Grech but we dare to guess what he must be feeling. He had wanted the matter to be expeditiously dealt with. On the contrary it took more and more time. He knew that justice demanded an expeditious conclusion. If someone was abused then a remedy had to be given. It the carers were wrongly accused then they have the right to have their names cleared. We would not be surprised if Bishop Grech is feeling terribly let down.

We can speak with more certainty about our feeling on the whole issue. We are feeling terribly let down.

Can anyone inform the public what is happening?