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	Italy Bishop Apologizes for Abuse; Seeks Claims Boston Herald March 19, 2010 http://news.bostonherald.com/news/international/europe/view/20100319italy_bishop_apologizes_for_abuse_seeks_claims/srvc=home&position=recent ROME — The European clerical sex abuse scandal has reached Italy, with the bishop of the northern diocese of Bolzano apologizing to victims and promising to cooperate with prosecutors. The apology late Thursday by Bishop Karl Golser came after several victims in recent days came forward alleging physical and sexual abuse at a Bolzano convent and church school in the 1950s and 60s. Golser launched an Internet campaign to urge more victims to come forward, setting up an e-mail address — molestia(at)bz-bx.net — for victims to report claims of abuse. "On behalf of the local church, I can only express my sincere regret in particular to the victims and ask their forgiveness for all those who hurt them," he said in a statement on the diocese’ Web site. He said the Internet campaign was an important step to discount "the erroneous impression that the church wants to keep quiet, or hide something." He said he would forward any case onto prosecutors as long as it falls within the statute of limitations. The local prosecutor, Guido Rispoli, welcomed the initiative but pointedly said all cases should be reported to him "to avoid compromising investigations and to avoid possible tampering with evidence," the ANSA news agency reported. So far, there hasn’t been an avalanche of reported cases of clerical abuse in Italy as there has been in Ireland and Germany, even though Italy — with its 50,850 priests in a nation of 60 million in the Vatican’s backyard — counts more priests than all of South America or Africa. Last year, an Associated Press tally of the known incidents of clerical abuse against minors documented 73 cases with more than 235 victims. It found that the Italian church had so far had to pay only a few hundred thousand euros (dollars) in civil damages to the victims, compared to $2.6 billion in abuse-related costs for the American diocese or euro1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) due to victims in Ireland. Subsequently, a priest who tracks pedophilia in Italy, the Rev. Fortunato di Noto, confirmed there were approximately 80 priests in Italy who had been implicated in the past 10 years. Last week, the Vatican official in charge of handling clerical sex abuse, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, noted that there hadn’t been the tsunami of cases in Italy. But he implied there might be many more cases out there that simply haven’t come to light. "Thus far the phenomenon does not seem to have dramatic proportions, although what worries me is a certain culture of silence which I feel is still too widespread in the country," Scicluna told the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference. He said there was an "ever greater commitment being shown by Italian bishops to throw light on the cases reported to them.
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