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	Italian Priest Investigated after Addicts Accuse Him of Sexual Abuse; He Denies It Associated Press, carried in International Herald Tribune August 3, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/03/europe/EU-GEN-Italy-Church-Abuse.php Rome: An 82-year-old priest is under investigation in Italy after addicts accused him of sexually abusing them at a rehabilitation center, a spokesman confirmed Friday. He said the allegations were baseless. The Rev. Pietro Gelmini insists there was no abuse and that he is being targeted by a group of addicts who were kicked out of the center, according to his spokesman Alessandro Meluzzi. Prosecutors in the central town of Terni have been investigating Gelmini for six months based on the statements of the men, but no indictments have been sought, Meluzzi said, noting that in Italy officials are obliged to investigate all reports of a crime. Calls to the prosecutor's office in Terni were not answered Friday. "A couple of guests who were in their 30s and who were kicked out of the community are accusing an 82-year-old man, half blind and with a pacemaker, of abusing them," Meluzzi told The Associated Press. "The truth is clear." Gelmini founded the "Comunita Incontro" in 1963 in the Umbrian town of Amelia. The organization now runs more than 200 rehabilitation centers in Italy and abroad, including Brazil, Thailand and New York. Gelmini is highly respected in Italy and has close ties to politicians, particularly in the center-right, and many were quick to defend him after La Stampa daily newspaper disclosed the investigation. "These are senseless accusations against a man who has worked generously against drugs," said Maurizio Gasparri, a former communications minister and a lawmaker in the right-wing National Alliance party. "There is a complete and total solidarity toward one of the few heroes of our time." The Italian Church has been largely untouched by sex scandals like the ones in the United States, where last month the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay US$660 million (€482 million) to settle abuse claims in the largest payout yet.
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