Vatican official says it is Curia's responsibility to conclude investigation into alleged abuse
It was now the responsibility of the Archdiocese of Malta to conclude “in a timely manner” its investigation into the alleged abuse that took place in a Church orphanage 20 years ago, a top Vatican official said yesterday confirming that his own report into the case had been concluded.
Last June, Mgr Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, held meetings with some of the eight men who seven years ago alleged they had been abused by priests in a home for boys in Sta Venera in the 1980s and 1990s.
His aim was to gather direct information to supplement the work being done on the case by the Curia in the hope that the full investigation would be concluded “expeditiously”.
The victims have in the past been severely critical of the length of time it has taken the Curiaappointed response team to conclude its investigation.
Yesterday, Lawrence Grech, one of the alleged victims, said he was disappointed that Mgr Scicluna had concluded his report before carrying out more interviews. He said the monsignor had told him he would be returning in August to continue interviewing abuse victims.
On Sunday, Mr Grech heard through other media that Mgr Scicluna’s report had been finalised.
“I feel I’ve lost control over the matter,” he said, adding he was particularly interested in the outcome of the pending court case against his alleged abusers. Three priests are undergoing court proceedings over the allegations.
Mgr Scicluna yesterday confirmed he had completed his report in July and said: “I invite and encourage all persons who did not manage to meet me to approach the (Maltese Curia’s) response team (that will continue with the investigations).”
He added: “The meetings I had in June and July were very useful and important. I would like to thank all the witnesses who chose to cooperate with my work.”
His work has now been referred to the secretary of the Congregation at the Vatican. A copy of the written record of the meetings was also given to the Archdiocese of Malta, which was furthering its investigation through the response team, he said.
“It is the responsibility of the Archdiocese to conclude the investigation in a timely manner, evaluate the findings in liaison with the religious superiors and refer the developments in the matter to the (Vatican’s) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for further instructions and closure,” Mgr Scicluna said.
Questions were sent to the Curia asking what the next step would be and to provide a timeframe. However, a spokesman replied that the Curia did not give information on individual cases.
He explained that according to general procedure the response team was to present its report to the Archbishop and the Major Superior, who would take a decision according to the team’s conclusions.
Where minors were concerned, if there was primafacie evidence that the alleged abuse had taken place, the case was then referred to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.
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Jeremy N Grech
Aug 31st 2010, 23:13
since when did exactly the church and curia become a court ? ;S
Frank Muscat
Aug 31st 2010, 21:57
Taken from BBC News 31August updated 16.44
Titled: German Catholic Church rewrites sex abuse guidelines.
"The revised rules insist all allegations must be reported to prosecutors in an attempt to prevent cases being covered up".
Church Authorities in Malta take note!
Edward Camilleri
Aug 31st 2010, 20:19
As A Azzopardi said, for a small misdemeanor like a boy/girl jumping in the sea naked at night, we prosecute immediately, but for a priest to be accused of molesting children over decades then the police/authorities stand by and do nothing! What a farce this country has become. Please do not come and tell me that the government is not controlled by the church! If it wasn’t it wouldn’t have introduced co-habitation laws before even raising the issue of divorce. Then comes the Archbishop or the Bishop of Gozo to tell us to be careful not to start a crusade. Of course they are comfortable with the situation as is, no one is above them. And when the common citizen says/does something according to them not appropriate, then a grave sin has been committed.
s.grima
Aug 31st 2010, 19:30
sugeriment zejr lil mons gouder. mons isa ghandek iktar x taghmel ghal gid tas socjeta!!!!! il vatican halla f idejkom jek tridu taghmlu gustitzja ma dawk l imsiken!!!!
Joseph Calleja
Aug 31st 2010, 17:47
How dense must the church think we are? This should have been a police matter and a police investigation from the start, as a matter of fact I still cannot figure out why it was not. How is a pedophile priest different from any other pedophile? Why the special privilege? Why haven't the abused kids/now men register a complaint with the police? Maybe hushed up by this so hush hush Curia Response Team stalling and promising them that justice is on the way. I can understand why the curia is dragging their feet but why are the police and the courts doing the same? I guess this is what we call a covert operation by the Curia Response Team. We have the accusers and we also have the abusers, so what's holding all this up? This convinces me that the Curia still has a lot of say so in Malta and both the government and the courts succumb to it. The politics as usual has to stop. Change is coming but it seems not soon enough. Give these kids some closure so they can continue on with their lives and move forward. They and their families need closure.
D Vella
Aug 31st 2010, 18:02
They need not only closure,but compensation as well as Justice in a Court of law.
Joseph Calleja
Aug 31st 2010, 18:32
@ D Vella My sentiments exactly. I wish that an impartial judge would take this case and move it along without any prejudice and without the interference of the magnificent Curia Cover Up Team. Give these men and their families closure once and for all. A good lawyer should be able to move this case along and also get compensation for these 8 innocent abused victims.
Karl Consiglio
Aug 31st 2010, 14:20
According to the teachings of Christ the Curia is meant to forgive and forget, so the duty of bringing the culprits forward lies solely in the hands of state law. Police arrests, interogation, investigation, court case, criminal proceedings as would be done for anybody else.
Joseph Calleja
Aug 31st 2010, 14:17
It was now the responsibility of the Archdiocese of Malta to conclude “in a timely manner”. Delay as much as you possibly can, hoping the problem will go away. Who is the Vatican trying to kid? It's been 20 years since these abuses took place and it's been 10 tears since the charges were made, and the Vatican is now saying it's up to the Maltese Curia to investigate further, INVESTIGATE FURTHER WHAT? Any other accused person abusing kids would have been tried and sentenced within one year but these 3 priests are free to roam around as free as birds. The Curia Response Team is a Cover Up Team for the church and nothing more. It's been 10 years of investigation by this comical very intelligent Maltese Curia and they managed to cover up these allegations made by at least eight kids that were abused by these pedophile priests. Now the Vatican pulls a Pontius Pilot stunt and dumps everything back to the wolfs that are watching over the lambs. What an insult to these abused kids and a big relief to the 3 priests it must be. Where is the justice? Shame on you Mgr.
Alex Ciantar
Aug 31st 2010, 14:21
So very well said Mr Joseph Calleja you hit the nail on the head I agree with you 100%
patrick zammit
Aug 31st 2010, 13:29
“Where minors were concerned, if there was primafacie evidence that the alleged abuse had taken place, the case was then referred to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.”
This is so worrying.
Are church members above the law?
These cases should be handled by the police and not by the same church which has a direct interest in preserving its “holy” image.
Oh, I forgot. When the church is involved, paedophile priests are severely punished by being transferred to another unsuspecting locality where they are free to continue abusing. Or they may be more severely punished by being disrobed.
g.portelli
Aug 31st 2010, 11:56
One awaits to see how the Maltese Church authorities will proceed and whether they will act faithfully according to what Pope Benedict himself has been explicitly saying with regards perpetrators and justice since his speech in Australia and his communiqué on the subject as the then Cardinal Ratzinger in 2001.It is vital that social justice is carried out how else can the Church renew itself, it will be difficult otherwise for the Church to be perceived as the supreme moral arbiter. It is also difficult for Maltese Catholics to justify inaction on the issue. One hopes that the salvation of the perpetrators does not come at the expense of the victims once again. How can anyone justify such action? I sincerely hope that honest reflection has a fair chance this time round. Maltese Catholics like other Catholics around the world have for a long time have been aware that they were in effect powerless to prevent injustice. It would be indeed sad if they at least not voice their concern in the name of Social Justice.
Pastore Rafael Sanchez
Aug 31st 2010, 11:37
The Roman Catholic Church is a secret society. In the post of Catholic divorce yesterday, some readers asked whether I am Evangelical. No, I am Catholic but not Roman. More information is in this website:
http://www.palmardetroya.org/index2.html
The true Pope is Peter II and the only Catholic Church is the Iglesia Católica Palmariana. His Holiness Peter II has no claims to visions but has confirmed that the Antichrist was born in the year 2000. The Palmarian doctrine regarding the Antichrist indicates that the Antichrist will mock Christ and imitate him by making a public appearance at the age of 12 and begin his public life when he is 30 years old.
In Malta, (because I minister in Italy), there is a small community of around 17,000 followers who keep a low profile because of persecution by the Roman Catholics. The two Maltese cardinals are very active and suffer in silence.
Who wants to contact me is allowed by the Times to send my e-mail for further illumination.
Miguel Micallef
Aug 31st 2010, 11:55
Please, there's no such thing as true pope. It's just icons. All religions have just one aim, and there's nothing noble at all in it.
JOe VELLa
Aug 31st 2010, 13:02
I see you have a Pope, Peter ll; use the scripture to refer of the antichrist; you have Maltese cardinals; you are being persecuted by the Roman Catholic in Malta; your pope do not claim of visions but claim the antichrist was born in 2000.
If you care to look in the Gospel it says: 2Timothy4:3-4 3. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4. And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned onto fables.
PastoreRS the Good Lord works wonders in different ways, to different people, please when you say you are persecuted in Malta how can I agree or deny your claim if I did not know your sect did exist. In Maltese we sat ''U Halliena gbien!''
renald williams
Aug 31st 2010, 14:02
all-Christians-can-be-Evangelical...
saved not by works but to do works... Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-8.
all-Christians-can-be-Catholic... as regards faith Scripture is enough... Jude 1:3.
Our Pope (meaning-parent) is Jesus… John 1:12; 12:36; Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34.
Univeral Bishop? quote from Gregory, Bishop of Rome 590-604...
Hadd (mill-appostli u l-qaddisin kollha) ma xtaq jissejjah universali. … tixtieq tissejjah fid-dinja … bhala missier generali?... minhabba dan it-titlu miskerrah ta' kburija il-knisja tinqasam minn nofs, u toffendi l-qlub ta' l-ahwa kollha… min isejjah lilu nnifsu, jew jixtieq li jissejjah Universali… hu waqt li qed jintefah, il-prekursur ta’ l-AntiKrist, ghax bi kburija ipoggi lilu nnifsu fuq l-ohrajn kollha. U bi kburija simili, hu mehud fl-izball, ghax dak il-pervers jixtieq jidher bhala Alla fuq kull bniedem…
"L-isqof ta' Ruma…ghandu fil-Knisja setgha shiha u suprema u universali"
(roman-Catholic-Church-Catechism-Paragraph-882).
Antichrists would be around after early Christianity John tells us...
1 John 2:18, 3:22; 4:3, 2 John 1:8, Apocalypse/ Revelation 13:11-18...
staying in a place Apocalypse/Revelation 17:9
(surrounded by Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine u Palatine…)
...Paul says they try to take place of Christ among Christians... 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.
May Christians never persecute Christians, nor other religions.
For further illumination, start reading the New Testament, especially the Gospels...
Ray Pace
Aug 31st 2010, 11:35
Its not just child abuse that the church is doing, there are other kind of abuse that the curia should be ashamed for not taking care of this kind of abuses, haw do they axpect Christions to go for prayers and mass when they see every thing upsaid down.
Mark Borg
Aug 31st 2010, 11:04
The Curia has various responsibilities and obligations into alleged abuses which amount to various issues but the Archbishop is doing nothing AT ALL. His role is to smile when meeting people and media!!!
J.Tonna
Aug 31st 2010, 11:36
Mr Borg, do you live with the Archbishop 24 hours a day, or you are one of the mud-slingers???
Alex Ciantar
Aug 31st 2010, 13:15
@ J. Tonna, mudslinging? priests are raping young boys and nothing has happened for so many years and you accuse Mr Mark Borg of mudslinging? ....... I wonder what you would say or do if one of these victim was your child??? would you still call it mudslinging?
V Azzopardi
Aug 31st 2010, 14:37
@ J Tonna: Please note that our Archbishop was appointed in year 2006, during his first speech he outlined that: "He faced his "Great Mission" with fear but was confident that God would see him through". Consequently the Maltese Church was promised CHANGE. Four years passed on and we are in 2010. All of us are still waiting for the promised change and for concrete decision and direction. No action was taken what so ever was taken by the Curia Authorities.
All of us are waiting for change, action and direction on the following topics - curia administration policies and procedures, alleged abuses, family related issues, village feasts, environment etc etc. The Maltese Church is not willing to take decisions even for issues under her direct control and authority. Take village feasts for example ALL the Curia Administration both old and newly appointed officials want that villagers fight on bulbs, statues, chairs, red damask, chandelliers, and other decorations. Can we take it further because these are similar to the stories in the Old Testment people fighting on falsified gods!!!
I think that Mr Mark Borg is not living 24 hours with the Archbishop but he is completely RIGHT.
JOe VELLa
Aug 31st 2010, 11:04
Sir,
Yesterday Col. Qaddafi in Rome said he want another $500,000,000 a year to control illegals and proudly said Europe will turn Moslem shortly. Now this is a country drowning in oil!
What is the media trying to do? is there nothing good to report on our local church? Can you tell the tax payer how much the church is costing for our spiritual well being!
No wonder Moslem are growing because this type of reporting will lead the reporter loosing his head .
Yes bring all facts relevant to the church, but my goodness stop finding the needle in the hay stack.
I am not a church mouse but it hurt all this hatred, is their an agenda to destroy our faith.
What else can the church do, she said she is sorry!
Miguel Micallef
Aug 31st 2010, 11:28
'Our' church. Why 'our'? I don't have a church. I am not Catholic, and I will not be a Muslim. My church is my mind and my body and I'm proud and happy of that. There's no such thing as 'our' church. Please say 'my' church if you want to refer to it so.
Alex Ciantar
Aug 31st 2010, 13:05
Sorry???? the church is sorry?? that is not good enough!!!!
JOe VELLa
Aug 31st 2010, 15:05
@Alex Ciantar
If I try to defend the church I feel embarrassed because our church has so many more competent authority to do so.
Yet when the Bishop as representative of the faithful ''The Church'' say ''SORRY'' it is the feeling of all faithful of their deep sorrow to this particular situation.
Let me remind you of ''Our Father'' ''.......and we forgive those who trespass against us'' and more so during church service the priest quote our Lord during the last supper, and says ''This is my blood etc.'', ''.....he who drink of this cup of my blood and follow me....'', in other words we have to learn to turn our cheek as Jesus did.
Yes the Bishop said Sorry and to me He said it in our name. That is enough.
Now let those directly involved receive for this sin and crime all that the ecclesiastical and civil law prescribe.
Those that have been in this situation know what they went through, let us not kangaroo court anyone, be it the Vatican, Bishop, or the church for the sake of personal ulterior motive.
Alex Ciantar
Sep 1st 2010, 14:24
@ JOe VELLa so for you it is fine that members of the church do as they please but when they get caught the church says sorry and we are supposed to to accept that... until it happens again.....
Lets give you an example if a policeman is charged with a crime all hell breaks loose and he he is prosecuted and punished twofold and I must say that is rightly so.
If a priest rapes young children his superiors says sorry and it is over and done with??
That is one sick notion ....these priest should be brought to justice and punished threefold for the crimes they have committed.... an example must be made of them!!!!
Louise Vella
Aug 31st 2010, 11:03
Bishops treat priest child rapists as sinners who confess their sins and vow to mend their ways. Instead of a jail sentence, there is penitence (maybe a few Hail Marys) and absolution. Church leaders seem to forget that raping children is a crime and that, as citizens of a secular state, priests are subject to its laws just like the rest of us.
The fact is that for decades bishops repeatedly chose to ignore complaints about paedophile priests. Accused clerics were quietly shoved off to other parishes where they continued to abuse children of unsuspecting parishioners. This practice of denial and concealment has been so consistently pursued in diocese after diocese, nation after nation, as to leave the impression of being a deliberate policy set by church authorities. Indeed, instructions coming directly from Rome have required every bishop and cardinal to keep matters secret. The Catholic Church, claiming to be the citadel of truth and righteousness has proved to be anything but.
Jane Hosgood
Aug 31st 2010, 10:49
@J.Houtsma, the Church is above the criminal law and any kind of law.
The Church want every think to go her way what every the mater is, right or wrong, that is the risen that so many Christions left the Catholic Church.
Miguel Micallef
Aug 31st 2010, 10:17
Ping
Pong
AAzzopardi
Aug 31st 2010, 09:21
Can someone please enlighten me, as i might be abit unfamiliar with our law!
How come that a case like students swimming naked or other petty crimes which don't even make it to the press are brought to justice within hours, but people claiming that priests had abused them years ago, and are giving evidence are not taken to court.
Can priests be prosecuted by normal law and can they go to prison?
It's very strange to see that the police hasn't yet taken any steps in this regards. Unless I am misinformed that is.
could someone enlighten me please.
M Grima
Aug 31st 2010, 09:54
@A Azzopardi
Pigs will fly before a priest is tried and jailed for an offence in our Criminal Courts.This is Malta not some free democratic Country where if you perservere(you shouldn't have to) Justice will not only be done , but will be seen to be done.
Hate to say it,but more fool them that thought they could expect Justice.
Louise Vella
Aug 31st 2010, 09:16
II
“in a timely manner”: this needs to be emphasized for the Curia’s Response Team and the courts. With time memories fade and witnesses become less reliable, especially children. Then lawyers plead prescription. Paedophiles and their lawyers try to drag cases for years; then evidence will become too weak to convict.
“His aim was to gather direct information to supplement the work being done on the case by the Curia”.
In the meantime he showed the Curia’s Response Team to be inadequate.
“I feel I’ve lost control over the matter,” Lawrence Grech said. Did he ever think the Curia would let the matter escape its control?
“A copy of the written record of the meetings was also given to the Archdiocese of Malta.”
Will a copy be given to the police and the courts that are examining the case? Of course not.
“Questions were sent to the Curia asking what the next step would be and to provide a timeframe. However, a spokesman replied that the Curia did not give information on individual cases.”
These are not just individual cases. It’s a system. It’s a way of life. And it has been going on like this for ages.
Jelle Houtsma
Aug 31st 2010, 08:50
It is NOT the curio that is responsible to conclude the investigation. It is the civil or criminal law that is responsible for that.
Is the catholic church above the law?
Louise Vella
Aug 31st 2010, 08:22
“It was now the responsibility of the Archdiocese of Malta to conclude “in a timely manner” its investigation into the alleged abuse”.
But the Vatican was called in because the Curia had proved reluctant to conclude the case.
“The victims have in the past been severely critical of the length of time it has taken the Curia appointed response team to conclude its investigation.”
The Response Team, chaired by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, had the prime aim of safeguarding the reputation of priests and was more interested in covering up the facts.
“Three priests are undergoing court proceedings over the allegations.”
In Malta, contrary to Ireland, the US, Australia etc, no priest has ever been found guilty by the Courts of sexually abusing children – including priests defrocked by the Church.
“A copy of the written record of the meetings was also given to the Archdiocese of Malta, which was furthering its investigation through the response team”.
The Response Team is part of the problem. Can retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo report cases to the police, or warn parents about offending priests, if for the last ten years he has covered up for the Church?