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	Italian Priest Says Sex Charges Part of a 'Conspiracy' Gulf Times August 6, 2007 http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no= 165231&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21 Rome: An Italian priest known for his work among drug addicts dismissed allegations of sexual abuse as a conspiracy by a "radical Jewish lobby" bent on weakening the Roman Catholic Church, reports said yesterday. Father Pierino Gelmini, 82, was quoted as saying by two newspapers, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, that the allegations were levelled by some youths who had been thrown out of his Incontro (Encounter) Community for theft. Gelmini said they "had probably found some anti-clerical judge" to open the inquiry. "Think about what happened in America, the instrumentalisation of American paedophile priests. The church made an error in paying compensation. "If I make a mistake, the entire Catholic Church should not have to pay for me," he told Corriere della Sera. "But this seems as if it was a strategic act made by this global lobby – how shall I put it – the fashionable radical Jewish lobby, which emanates from America ... and tries to weaken the whole church," he said. Gelmini's broadside came after La Stampa daily published on Friday a report saying that he was under investigation in Terni, in central Italy, after "four or five" former young patients of one of his drug recovery centres filed sexual abuse complaints. But Gelmini's spokesman, Alessandro Meluzzi, hastily denied the comments fingering the so-called Jewish lobby. "He may have been misunderstood, I am not sure that he said that. Don Gelmini is referring to a certain anti-clerical culture that comes from the US, which feeds off of paedophile scandals worldwide," Meluzzo told AFP. "Don Gelmini considers members of the Jewish community like big brothers". – AFP
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