The Times of Malta
March 27, 2010
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100327/world-news/storm-over-paedophile-priest-now-threatens-italy
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| talian policemen (right) evacuating US citizens after they took part in a demonstration against child sexual abuse, in front of St Peter's Square at the Vatican on Thursday. Photo by Alessia Giuliani/AFP |
Mgr Charles Scicluna, the chief Vatican investigator for sex crimes, set the tone in a recent interview with Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.
Paedophile priest scandals sweeping the Catholic Church around Europe have encouraged more and more victims to speak out, fuelling a storm that now threatens to break over Italy.
"Victims' groups will grow exponentially in the next few weeks," predicted Italian anti-paedophilia activist Roberto Mirabile.
Fresh Catholic Church investigations in the northern cities of Bolzano and Verona could expose new cases of predatory clergy in Italy, which counts more than 50,000 priests, the highest concentration in the world.
And yesterday, the left-leaning Italian weekly L'Espresso published new allegations of child molestation by a monk in Tuscany and by a nun in the northern region of Lombardy.
In an echo of the scandal that rocked the Irish Catholic Church in November, L'Espresso noted that the bishops overseeing the two dioceses were aware of the abuses and covered up the allegations.
"The Italian Church is worried and moving to address what might break out in Italy," Mr Mirabile, head of the anti-paedophilia group La Caramella Buona, said.
The Italian Church declined to comment, but Charles Scicluna, the chief Vatican investigator for sex crimes, set the tone in a recent interview with Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.
"So far, the phenomenon does not seem to be of dramatic proportions, though I am worried by a certain culture of silence that is still too widespread" in Italy, he said.
In Bolzano, revelations of abuse emerged in the local media earlier this month, and the diocese is meeting with victims who have come forward, said spokesman Martin Pezzei.
The Bolzano bishop publicly asked for forgiveness and urged victims to contact the diocese, saying in a statement that in so doing he was dispelling "the impression that the Church wants to hush up or hide something".
Mr Pezzei said more victims had come forward after the apology, but declined to offer figures.
Earlier this month, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, responsible for sex abuse investigations, asked the Verona diocese to reopen a probe into abuse allegations.
This time, investigators will interview victims, unlike in the earlier probe, which was prompted by a January 2009 expose by L'Espresso.
Victims allege that employees of a Catholic institute for the deaf abused 67 children from the 1950s until 1984 - a figure disputed by diocesan spokesman Bruno Fasani.
"As far as we know, that is an unreliable figure," Mr Fasani told AFP.
Three of the Verona victims were to appear on an Italian public television broadcast late yesterday, stressing the parallel with the case of a priest at the centre of a New York Times expose on Thursday.
Reverend Lawrence Murphy of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was accused of abusing up to 200 deaf children.
Mr Mirabile believes the recent string of scandals, along with Pope Benedict XVI's pastoral letter on paedophilia crimes in Ireland issued on Saturday, will embolden other victims to come forward and speak out.
"The Holy Father's letter has certainly given an input in terms of courage," said Fr Fortunato di Noto, a Sicilian priest whose Meter association fights paedophilia and child pornography.
Since the Irish cases emerged, abuse scandals have come to light in the Pope's native Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland.
L'Espresso yesterday listed dozens of religious figures in Italy who were prosecuted for sexual abuse or for possession of child pornography, saying that "the front is widening".
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