Bishop Grech: Priest in Abuse Claims 'Must' Cooperate with Investigators, Times of Malta, June 4, 2011

Bishop Grech: Priest in Abuse Claims 'Must' Cooperate with Investigators

Times of Malta
June 4, 2011

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110604/local/Gozo-priest-in-Cairns-abuse-claims-must-cooperate-with-investigators.368859

Bishop Mario Grech.

Gozitan priest Fr Joseph Sultana, who is facing sex abuse allegations by a former altar boy in Australia, is duty bound to cooperate with the investigating authorities, according to Gozo Bishop Mario Grech.

The Bishop's statement comes in the wake of reports in the Australian media that Fr Sultana, who is at the centre of a lawsuit filed by the altar boy, was refusing to return to Australia to face the allegations.

The priest, now in his 70s, had returned to Malta in the late 1990s. When the abuse allegations came to light last October – when the lawsuit was filed – Mgr Grech said he would cooperate with the competent authorities on the matter.

Asked yesterday whether he had urged or ordered Fr Sultana to return to Australia, his spokesman replied: "Bishop Grech insists that all members of the Church, clergy and laity alike, are in duty bound to cooperate with the ecclesiastical and civil authorities investigating similar cases.

"When he came to know, from the press, about the allegations against Fr Sultana, Bishop Grech immediately offered his cooperation to (Cairns) Bishop (James) Foley... To date, neither the ecclesiastical nor the civil authorities in Cairns have requested any form of cooperation regarding this case from Bishop Grech," the spokesman said.

Last October, the international media reported that the former altar boy, who is now about 39 years old, launched a lawsuit against the Church alleging years of abuse by Fr Sultana. Fr Sultana, who was ordained in 1962, was already living in Gozo by then.

The man claimed he was regularly abused by Fr Sultana while he was a student and an altar boy at St Joseph's school and church at Atherton between March 1979 and November 1982. He also alleged that the Roman Catholic Church and Sisters of Mercy in Cairns failed to prevent the alleged abuse as they did not act on his complaints. He is seeking compensation and damages amounting to over €600,000.

The Cairns Post reported that, in a brief telephone conversation with Fr Sultana, he said he would not return to Australia for the court case.

The Australian news website also reported Mgr. Foley saying he had been in contact with Mgr Grech via e-mail.