BishopAccountability.org
	The Church's Renaissance: the Need to Tackle Clerical Abuse By Martin Scicluna Malta Independent June 5, 2011 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=126588 Reacting to the momentous result of the 28 May referendum in favour of the introduction of divorce legislation, Monsignor Anton Gouder, the Church's Pro Vicar General (one of the key architects of the Maltese Church's referendum campaign), expressed surprise at the result. Answering a range of questions covering church-state relations in Malta, the overbearing behaviour of some priests during the referendum campaign and the Bishops' joint apology to the faithful just before the polls closed, there was little acknowledgement from this most senior prelate that the Maltese Church was going to have to change if it were not to become an irrelevance. There is a terrible risk that the Church could sink into self-pity and denial. Yet this is a huge opportunity for the Archbishop to lead a renaissance of the Maltese Church. As I proposed in an earlier article ("Reflections on a Referendum" of 1 June), there is a need for him to implement a ruthless removal of those Monsignors who have been advising him and who have failed him so badly. There is an imperative to recruit a younger, more enlightened generation to run his Curia and secretariat. But let him, for a start, as a clear statement of new intent, deal expeditiously and bravely with the long-running saga of clerical abuse in his Church. The facts are well known. Allegations of child abuse by the Maltese clergy go back to the 1980s. Over the past 12 years since the Church set up its 'Response Team' for the purpose, some 45 allegations of abuse have been investigated. Of these, 19 were declared to be unfounded, 13 were found to be justified and, until a few months ago, 13 remained pending under investigation. It was these 13 cases that made the headlines a year ago when representations were made personally to Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to Malta by a number of alleged victims. The Pope's personal intervention, and his emotional promise that the cases in Malta would be dealt with urgently, led Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, to carry out an investigation. He reported at the end of last year that he had found that these cases had also been well founded. Seven months later, justice is still denied to the victims. The Maltese Church's apparent inability to deal conclusively, in a transparent, expeditious and publicly accountable manner, with this festering scandal – the rape of children, what the Pope himself called 'unspeakable crimes' – must be, and is, a cause for concern to all of us. Taken in conjunction with the world-wide problem of clerical abuse which has manifested itself from Austria to Australia, from the United Kingdom to the United States and from Belgium to Brazil, coupled with the personal involvement of the Pope in dealing with a number of these cases, has shone a searchlight on the way Church and State handle these matters. Churches in other countries – equally shell-shocked by the revelations – have reacted in some measure to remedy the situation and to put in place procedures to ensure they are dealt with by their own national criminal justice system. Belgium's Roman Catholic Church, for example, has vowed to compensate the victims of paedophile priests after an inquiry revealed nearly 500 cases involving Church workers over several decades. In the United States, lawsuits brought by abuse victims caused some dioceses to declare bankruptcy following million-dollar settlements. In Malta, meanwhile, there seems to be a conspiracy of silence, involving both Church and State, as to how these proven cases of clerical abuse are being dealt with. Although the government has rightly, though belatedly, introduced a Bill to set up a Child Offenders' Register (the day after the Church's Response Team finally concluded there was enough evidence for the long-standing case of the 13 victims of clerical abuse to be sent to the Vatican for adjudication), we still find ourselves having to ask why those who have perpetrated unspeakable evil have still not been sentenced or, indeed, whether they have actually been given refuge in the Church. Is it right that such matters appear to be being dealt with in apparent secrecy, leaving priests and bishops exempt from public scrutiny? Is it right for the State to give the Church such a dispensation, or is this such a heinous crime that it should be treated exclusively as a criminal offence by the courts, sitting in open session? The government's Bill for a Child Offender's Register was meant to give a clear answer: the Church would in future be subject – as we all are – to the lay authorities, the police, and the secular courts to settle such matters. This issue poses a fundamental challenge which the Archbishop has a chance to address. How he does so could prove a turning point – a fresh start – for his Church. If he is to demonstrate clearly that the Church in Malta has learnt the painful lessons of the divorce debacle, he should personally take the initiative to bring justice and immediate closure to the long-suffering victims of the clerical abuse they suffered in St Joseph's Home some 30 years ago. Among the many lessons to come out of this referendum, the Archbishop should perhaps take this one most to heart, for it offers him a chance to redeem the Church's image by showing he is prepared to face such challenges without obfuscation. It may well be that he was, in any case, withholding action on the 13 cases of clerical abuse because he feared it would undermine the Church's position in the divorce referendum campaign. If so, that was utterly dishonourable, given the trauma of the victims and their heart-felt wishes – endorsed by no less a person than the Pope himself – that there should be urgent closure after so many years waiting for justice to be done. For the Archbishop, however, this should be seen as a bold opportunity to come clean on clerical abuse in Malta and to show that the renaissance of the Maltese Church is under way. This will mean an unconditional announcement recognising the moral responsibility of the Church for what was done to these young people all those years ago; that names the guilty perpetrators and how the Church will deal with them; and that offers financial compensation to the victims for their suffering. Above all, it must make it absolutely clear that it recognises the primacy of the civil law over canonical law in the prosecution of any cases that may arise in the future. The Maltese Church must declare that henceforth its policy is one of zero tolerance and complete transparency, responsibility and accountability in this and other spheres. To do so now would be seen not simply as an act of reconciliation with those whom the Church has hurt, but also a clear statement of change. Handled with courage and openness, it should lead to the start of a new chapter between the Maltese Church and its dispirited flock, and a renaissance in its standing.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.