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	'Priests Should Stop Trying for Acquittal' - One Priest Defrocked, the Other in the Process of By Chiara Bonello Malta Independent August 4, 2011 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=129842 It would be better for the priests to make an apology, rather than to continue in their efforts to emerge from this case scot-free, one of the priestly abuse victims, Laurence Grech, told The Malta Independent. Speaking following the news that Carmelo Pulis, who was jailed for six years after being found guilty of abusing nine boys, has been removed from the priesthood by the Vatican at the beginning of July, Mr Grech said he should be in prison. Godwin Scerri's case is being examined, but he is also very likely to be defrocked in the near future. Mr Grech said that the two priests should be in jail, but instead they are playing the appeal card. A Vatican spokesperson said that although Mr Pulis was removed from the priesthood, and can't perform any priestly duties, such as listening to confession, he will remain a lay member of his religious congregation. The fact remains that he must be taken care of as a person, even though he has made mistakes, the source said, adding that Missionary Society of St Paul Superior General, Fr Bernard Mangion, and Malta's Bishop, Paul Cremona have both been informed of his removal. The decision about the second priest, Fr Godwin Scerri, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment after the court found him guilty of sexually abusing two boys last Tuesday, will come no later than October 2011, the source said. The fact is that the Vatican has numerous cases from around 5,000 dioceses, not only those related to charges of paedophilia, to decide on, he said. Naturally while these priests are not in prison, they will be kept away from children, so that they can't fall into the same cycle, he said. In a statement issued yesterday the MSSP said they had been informed of Mr Pulis' dismissal from the clerical state of the said presbyter, as a penalty, while he will remain incorporated in the MSSP, a decision which cannot be appealed. They also pointed out that Fr Pulis had been barred from public priestly ministry as a precautionary measure, as from the moment the first allegations surfaced in 2003. Originally three priests were facing similar charges; however Brother Joseph Bonnet, 63, died last January. The abuse took place in 2003 and preceding years in St Joseph Home, Santa Venera and a summer residence in Marfa. Mr Grech lamented the lack of a formal apology from Archbishop Paul Cremona, and said that the Curia had seemed to be taken aback by the fact that when in Malta, Pope Benedict XVI made such an apology. However in a Curia statement issued later yesterday, Archbishop Paul Cremona expressed his intention to meet with the victims shortly, and to personally ask for their forgiveness. The Curia expressed its regret at the fact that minors who were in the care of a Church home had suffered abuse, and asked for forgiveness for this, to the victims and to Maltese society in general. "We would accept Bishop Cremona's apology wholeheartedly, why not," Mr Grech went on to say, adding however that it should have come at an earlier stage, rather than after the court verdict. Unfortunately, he said, this apology will do nothing to ease some of the effects of the trauma on some of his fellow victims. "I am not speaking about myself, as I have always been strong and managed to come through it, however some of my friends are leading miserable lives as a consequence and need help," he said. "At the age of 18 they threw us out, burdened with our garbage bag of clothes and the trauma of the abuse we suffered," he said, adding that some fellow victims have not managed to shake this off yet, and 'sorry' will not be enough to help them. Mr Grech suggested that the Church should look into what sort of help, be it accommodation or help in getting over the trauma, these people need. The Curia also expressed its regret at the fact that investigations on the reports of abuse had taken so long to be concluded. It encouraged those having any information of abuse of minors to report it immediately. It also said it had strengthened its structures to avoid such abuse, and if it happens, to deal with it in as short a time as possible. However, it fell short of commenting on whether the case would be decided in the short term. Judgement day A copy of the paedophile priests' judgement handed on Tuesday morning, but which was delivered to the press yesterday afternoon, had chunks of text omitted. Judgement was delivered in public after a court decree because up till yesterday, the eight years of proceedings took place behind closed doors. There was no ban on any publication of names in the judgement which is public. Journalists made a request for a copy of the much anticipated judgement to be made available following delivery, on Monday morning. However, the court expressed doubts this would be ready explaining some things may need to be corrected afterwards. In fact it was not available by Tuesday afternoon (hours after delivery). Yesterday morning, journalists were told to check about it later and a copy was finally handed to them shortly after 2.30pm. At the same time it should also have been uploaded on the justice services website but over three hours later this was still not available seemingly because the IT system takes a number of hours to respond. It is understood that magistrate Saviour Demicoli consulted the criminal courts' director Joseph Sacco on whether the judgement should be made available to the public in its entirety or not. It is unclear what was omitted and on which grounds. The text was not left out to conceal identities of victims or perpetrators because these were given. Several details of sexual acts were also not deleted. However, excerpts of quoted text from criminal law books were among the omitted sentences. On realisation that there was an omission of some sort on nearly every other page of the judgement, clarification could not be sought because the magistrate and his registrar had left (as had all other staff members of the Courts of Justice who usually leave their offices at 1.30pm in summer).
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