Auxiliary bishop Charles Scicluna has been tasked with collecting evidence in what may be the Vatican’s first investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by a cardinal.
Mgr Scicluna was appointed to collect testimonies of clergymen who alleged Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned in disgrace as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburg in February 2013, had inappropriate sexual relations with them some 30 years ago.
Contacted by Times of Malta yesterday, Mgr Scicluna said he would rather make no comment at this stage.
This may not be an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing to do
According to letters leaked to the National Catholic Reporter, Pope Francis asked the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops to send Bishop Scicluna to “listen to and report the testimony offered by past and present members of the clergy... concerning any incidents of sexual misconduct committed against them by other members of the clergy whomsoever.”
Mgr Scicluna is expected to visit the archdiocese between Tuesday and Thursday.
Cardinal O’Brien, who had served as the archbishop of Edinburgh since 1985, resigned following claims by three priests and a former priest of the Scottish archdiocese that he had inappropriate sexual relations with them dating back some 30 years.
He quit just days before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in February 2013,
The current leader of the Scottish Catholic Church, Archbishop Leo Cushley, said he was “grateful” for Mgr Scicluna’s appointment.
“I believe that this is a positive step towards truth and eventual reconciliation, this may not be an easy thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.”
Before being appointed Auxiliary Bishop in Malta in 2012, Mgr Scicluna worked as chief prosecutor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he built a reputation for pursuing child abuse scandals aggressively.
In 2005, then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had asked him to collect testimony in relation to claims concerning the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Fr Marcial Maciel.
The Cardinal O’Brien investigation may be the most high-profile probe carried out by the Vatican.
In 1995 Austrian Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër resigned as archbishop of Vienna following allegations that he sexually abused a number of young men.
He relinquished his privileges as a cardinal in 1998 following a request by the late Pope John Paul II, but he was not investigated.