MALTA
The Malta Independent
by Louise Vella
During the course of an interview aired recently on Xarabank, Judge Caruana Colombo stated that from 1999 to date, no less than 85 cases of sexual abuse were investigated by the Curia’s Response Team he heads. He also said that he passes on the results of his inquiries to the archbishop who then decides what to do next.
Even though, strictly speaking, this does not fall within his brief, has the learned judge ever wondered whether our archbishop followed up those cases where the evidence indicated that the alleged abuse had in fact taken place? Has he never asked himself whether the archbishop might be more concerned about safeguarding the reputation of the local Church, rather than protecting his flock’s most vulnerable members? Is it possible that he never heard how Catholic churches all over the globe sought to stem the tide by adopting a policy of transferring child-molesting priests from one parish to another thereby exposing a greater number of children to the risk of being abused? Has he never suspected that the local Church authorities were following the same practice as well? Did it never occur to him that his services were perhaps being abused and exploited by the church authorities to support their avowed conspiracy of silence? When all is said and done, how can it be that his doubtlessly fine-tuned conscience ever really let him be?
The fact is that the outcome of the numerous inquiries conducted by Judge Caruana Colombo is known only to him, and the archbishop. These results are then suppressed and buried forever in the hallowed Secret Archives of the Curia. Nobody knows who these dangerous paedophile priests are, how many children they have harmed, or what other incriminating evidence the Church might be keeping under wraps.