Fr Charles Fenech, the founder of Radju Marija, was yesterday fined €150 by a judge for failing to turn up as a witness in a court case filed by clerical sex abuse victims.
The judge also ordered he be escorted under arrest in the next sitting.
Fr Fenech was expected to testify about the relationship of Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef with the radio station run by the Dominican Order in a case instituted by the sex abuse victims in the constitutional court.
The victims are asking the court to stop Mr Justice Micallef from hearing their case for compensation from the Church because he is president of Radju Marija.
Lawyer Franco Vassallo, appearing for the victims, submitted a newsletter belonging to the radio station, which reported on a talk given by the Mr Justice Micallef to the station’s members. But when Fr Fenech – who stands charged with sex abuse of a woman in a separate criminal case – was summoned to testify about the matter he failed to turn up.
Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti fined the priest for disrespecting the court.
In their testimony yesterday in front of Mr Justice Chetcuti, two of the victims, Lawrence Grech and Philip Cauchi, questioned Mr Justice Micallef’s impartiality.
Mr Justice Chetcuti initially objected to the victims testifying about their previous links with the St Joseph Home, where the abuse took place, insisting the case was limited to objections about Mr Justice Micallef.
However, Dr Vassallo explained the context was important to understand why the victims were objecting. “Our clients feel let down by the Church and the sitting judge [Mr Justice Micallef] is too close to the institution that abused these men. Some of the clients are so psychologically damaged that we cannot even ask them to testify.”
Taking the witness stand, an emotional Mr Cauchi recounted how the help promised to them by the Church took the form of hour-long meetings with a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a social worker.
He testified how one day he had been listening to Radju Marija when he heard Fr Anton Gouder, then pro-vicar, telling his audience the Church had helped the victims of sex abuse.
Mr Cauchi told the court that he phoned in on the programme and told Fr Gouder that nobody had contacted him despite the case having dragged on for seven years in front of the Church Response Team.
A meeting with Fr Gouder took place at the Curia the following day and an appointment was made with the three professionals.
I don’t know the judge but how can he help me if he is involved with the Church? Who decided for our case to be heard by the president of Radju Marija?
Breaking down in tears, Mr Cauchi said the meetings re-opened old wounds, and he was eventually prescribed pills. He never took the pills after his doctor advised against.
Asked by his lawyer what objection he had to Mr Justice Micallef hearing the compensation case, Mr Cauchi said: “I don’t know the judge, but how can he help me if he is involved with the Church? Who decided for our case to be heard by the president of Radju Marija?”
In his testimony, Mr Grech recounted how Archbishop Charles Scicluna had promised the victims help when still the Vatican’s lead child sex abuse prosecutor.
He said that Mgr Scicluna had taken charge of the Church investigation and speeded up matters. He recounted that Mgr Scicluna had met the victims of sexual abuse at his home in Lija and urged them to seek compensation from the Church.
Mr Grech said further meetings followed with Pope Benedict in Malta and then Archbishop Paul Cremona.
“There was a lot of emotion and pomp in our meeting with the Pope, but again nothing concrete in terms of help ever emerged… After Mgr Scicluna became Archbishop I was on Times Talk [a TV discussion show] and challenged him to live up to his offer to help, but I have heard nothing else since then,” Mr Grech testified.
He said that the only help offered by the Curia soon after the criminal case was concluded were sessions with three health professionals. “They spoke to me for an hour; that is the help I received.”
In November 2012, an appeals court confirmed the guilty verdict reached by a magistrate in the case against former priests Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis, who were sentenced to five and six years in jail, respectively.
Both were members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, which runs the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera.
They were found guilty of having sexually abused 11 boys in their care at the home some 20 years earlier.
Mr Scerri escaped conviction on a rape charge because the police had indicated the place where it happened incorrectly in the charge sheet. The case first came to light in 2003, when Mr Grech and other victims spoke up about what went on in the home when they were teenagers.
Subsequent to the criminal convictions, the victims opened a civil suit for damages against the Church after it had refused them monetary compensation.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com