I would like to answer the questions put to me by Charles Cirillo (The Sunday Times, June 27). Briefly, his questions dealt with: the reason why our Archbishop and the Pope had met with the alleged victims of abuse; and whether they believed them or not.

The reason for the encounters is simple: our dear Pope and Archbishop are shepherds and fathers indeed. The alleged victims form part of their flock. Therefore, meeting them is completely in line with the Pope's and Archbishop's pastoral work.

They listened to them as a father listens to his children. They followed the words of St Paul: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." The alleged victims wept, so our spiritual shepherds wept too. The Pope and Archbishop wanted to help them and the alleged victims really felt their concern.

In any offence there must be at least an alleged victim and alleged offender. In these encounters, the alleged offenders were absent. They could not defend themselves. Besides, the encounters were not criminal trials: no judge/magistrate, no prosecution, no defence, no oaths, no sentence. So these meetings can in no way be interpreted as a condemnation of any priest.

Proceedings in our criminal court are still underway. No Maltese priest has as yet been convicted of any paedophilia.

Until and unless a sentence of conviction is given, all alleged offenders are deemed innocent.

Moreover, the fact that their trial has already dragged on for some years denotes, at least to me, that all the accused pleaded 'not guilty'.

That's why to date there is no Maltese paedophile priest.

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