BishopAccountability.org
	Gozitan Clergy Abuse Scandal Rocks Maltese Church's Omertà By Karl Schembri Malta Today October 22, 2006 http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/10/22/t19.html His photo hanging in the Gozo Cathedral Library as its major benefactor and honorary president and distributed among the world for totally different reasons, 72-year-old Fr Anthony Mercieca has managed to do just what his superiors have tried to hide for ages. For years now, the Maltese and Gozitan curias have been sweeping under the carpet some of the most serious allegations of child abuse by members of the clergy and religious people, shelving files of reported cases in their obscure and secretive internal tribunals, away from police investigators and doomed to remain in the darkest ecclesiastical corridors unless the victims find the courage to report their cases to civil authorities. Speaking to American journalists, Fr Mercieca has, by Maltese and Gozitan standards, talked too much. So much that he found himself amending, clarifying and censoring his own statements in one interview after another, after his alleged victim referred to his abuse "by a clergyman", until his lawyer finally convinced him to just shut up. In his original interview as reported by the Sarasota Herald Tribune, he admitted massaging the young altar boy and now former Republican Congressman Mark Foley in the nude back in the 1960s, but would not specifically remember having sex with him. He also told them he went skinny-dipping with the boy at a secluded lake and being nude in the same room on overnight trips, though he could not remember what he did on one particular night when he was in a drug-induced stupor. "I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown," the newspaper reported Mercieca as saying from his home in Victoria, Gozo. "I was taking pills – tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit." Then came his bombshell. He said he taught Foley "some wrong things" related to sex without specifying what he meant exactly, adding that he still had "great memories of our trips". "I wish him well," Fr Mercieca said. "Let bygones be bygones." Call him naïve, but coming from omertà-ridden Gozo, Fr Mercieca is really a blessing in disguise for all the Maltese victims of clergy abuse. As scores of journalists from the international media camp outside his house, his case is bound to mark a turning point in the way the Maltese and Gozitan curias treat cases of reported child abuse by their priests. In all fairness, it is the first case to be faced by the new Bishop of Gozo, Mgr Mario Grech, and the first signs show he has nothing to do with his ageing Maltese counterpart Mgr Guzeppi Mercieca. Mgr Grech immediately contacted the Archdiocese of Miami, which was responsible for Fr Mercieca at the time of the alleged abuse, in stark contrast with Archbishop of Malta who has steadfastly ignored warnings from foreign dioceses about priests who had child abuse records and were named and blamed in the foreign and national press. Mgr Mercieca was in fact responsible for handpicking Fr Godwin Scerri, among others, who after learning of child abuse reports to Canadian police was rushed to Malta and posted as a spiritual director in a girl's secondary school in Malta. He was also serving at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera, where a decade since his escape from Canada he then faced fresh charges of child abuse of children who lived at the home together with another two priests. Mgr Mercieca and his medieval public relations machine have always been in denial when faced with child abuse allegations. They cite legalistic arguments, justifying their silence on the grounds that once a case is in court it is 'sub judice' – a favourite among criminal lawyers defending the indefensible. They insist on confidentiality simply to dismiss any sort of commitment in public, while dioceses abroad issue public apologies, urge other alleged victims to come forward with their cases and take immediate steps to defrock the alleged abusers even though legally they would still be innocent. And they fork millions in compensation to the victims – something the Maltese church has never done and has refused to do ever since the first Maltese case of clergy paedophilia ever emerged. The international spotlight on Gozo is surely adding to the heat in Mgr Grech's diocese, but so far he has acted promptly and appropriately, pledging full cooperation with the authorities so that justice is done – something Mgr Mercieca has always refused to do and opting instead to bury his internal inquiries and leave it up to the police to fish for clergy abusers. The Archdiocese of Miami did not mince its words, saying it was distressed by the revelations disclosed by Fr Mercieca. "Such behaviour is morally reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable. The events described are totally contrary to the ministry of a priest," the church said. And in light of these revelations, Miami Archbishop John Favalora immediately withdrew Fr Mercieca's faculties and initiated an internal investigation. "An apology is due to Mr Foley for the hurt he has experienced," Mgr Favalora said. "While it was long in coming, with God's merciful grace this painful revelation can be the beginning of reconciliation and an instrument of redemption and healing for Mr Foley." Finally, it had to be the little island of Gozo to rock the Maltese church into the real world. kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt Sacred Scandals 1986 – Fr Louis Scerri, a Jesuit and teacher at St Aloysius is silently removed from the order after reports of abuse of his students surface to his superiors. He is eventually posted at a girls' junior lyceum in Handaq and then at a government school in Mosta, facing criminal charges of child abuse later on 1993 – MSSP member Fr Godwin Scerri is rushed to Malta from Canada as soon as child abuse allegations are filed to the Ontario Provincial Police. The Curia takes his denial and stops investigations, but he is still considered a fugitive of justice facing charges of sexual assault on minors in Canada. Incredibly the Maltese Archbishop posts him as spiritual director of Can. P. Pullicino Girls' Secondary School in Rabat upon his return. Ten years later he faced fresh charges of abuse of children at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera 2002 – Fr Louis Scerri, who was serving at the San Gejtanu parish in Hamrun, stands accused of raping three minor sisters from Mosta. The Curia says it is not responsible for him October 2003 – Fr Godwin Scerri, Fr Charles Pulis and Br Joseph Bonnett, all members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, are charged in criminal court of abusing and raping children at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera October 2006 – Fr Anthony Mercieca of Gozo is named by disgraced US Congressman Mark Foley as having abused him 40 years back in South Florida when the latter was still an altar boy
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.