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	Onus Goes Further Than the Accused By Pamela Hansen Malta Independent August 7, 2011 http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=130052 What is truly shocking, about the cases of sexual child abuse by priests, is that people either chose to ignore what was going on, or, giving them the benefit of the doubt, were too naive to believe in such wickedness. Although the Vatican has now defrocked one of them and is constantly asking for forgiveness, the air of mistrust in the Catholic Church persists. It is extraordinary that the Church Response Team absolved Charles Pulis weeks before he was charged in court and actually told him to "continue taking care of the children like an honest parent," at St Joseph's Orphanage. He was caught lying on his bed in his underwear with a boy "on top of him". I suppose that was how he got away with that. The Response Team must have believed that the boy was seducing the priest, including undressing him! Is that a possible explanation for not only letting him off, but also extolling his care skills and comparing him to an "honest parent"? Can people heading such investigative bodies be so unworldly and credulous? Even if the boy was 'co-operating', it does not exonerate the priest from his responsibility. Who was the vulnerable one here? The court appeared to be much more savvy in such matters: "In circumstances where Carmelo Pulis allows minors in his room at about 11.45pm, while wearing a vest and boxer shorts, with a boy lying down on him and ending up with an erection, while saying that he never had homosexual tendencies and was allergic to homosexuals is, to say the least, contradictory," it said in its judgement. It was also remarkable that whereas the Response Team investigations usually take up to seven years for it to reach a decision, it took no more than a couple of months to reach the decision that Pulis was not only not guilty of abuse, but was also a prime example of a caring professional. This was just before the island was rocked by the news of allegations of widespread, sexual child abuse at St Joseph's Orphanage. That time the Response Team, which had initiated a second investigation in October 2003, took seven years to conclude that the accusations were founded. The Vatican had then instructed that the cases should be heard by a Church Tribunal, which had to pass judgment on the three priests involved in the allegations. The Curia is so far mum on whether any conclusions have been reached in that regard. I shall now venture to prise the lid off another can of worms. I am assuming that priests also go to confession. In that case, again assuming the accused were honest in confession, the priests hearing the confessions must have know that sexual child abuse was going on for years. I know of the secrecy of the confessional, but there were things that could have been done to protect the children. How could those priests (hearing that kind of confession) who did nothing about it, sleep at night? Then they have the nerve to condemn homosexuality. In his defence, Charles Pulis cited "depression". Any GP will tell you that many mums, even some dads and people with no children suffer from depression, but they don't go around sexually abusing kids. He said in court that he "always needed to have company and began suffering from panic attacks whenever he was alone". If his need for company and his fear of panic attacks were leading him to such depravity, he should have resigned from the job of child carer and sought help. He did seek help about his depression but he seemed to have been dishonest with his psychiatrist, who also happens to be Health Minister Joseph Cassar, and "denied ever sexually abusing the children", according to Dr Cassar's testimony. He also testified: "Mr Pulis would speak of hopelessness and helplessness, symptoms shown by people who were suicidal. In fact, the priest would speak of the wish to die." Dr Cassar also said that the level of anxiety experienced by Mr Pulis was such that it "was actually dysfunctional" and required medication. The dysfunctional aspect was so great that, together with his superior, Fr Silvio Bezzina, the decision was taken not to allow Mr Pulis to drive, Dr Cassar testified. Therefore, the institution was aware of his medical condition. His dysfunctionality was deemed "so great" to making him incapable to control a vehicle, yet it seems there were no checks on how that dysfunctionality was affecting his work with children. To be fair, the director of St Joseph's did temporarily remove him from the orphanage, while his case was being heard by the Church Response Team. Nevertheless, it seems he was reinstated when he was cleared by it. I wonder what happened to the whistleblower in that case. Did he lose his job? As to the other priest, Francesco Scerri also known as Godwin, he got off a rape charge on a legal technical error. The charge cited the venue of the rape as Marfa, when it transpired that the crime had been perpetrated at the St Joseph Home in Santa Venera. Which begs the question, if the director of that institution had no idea of the scale of depravity going on under his nose, why is he still running the home? If he is. Magistrate Saviour Demicoli said he found the story of the rape victim credible, yet Godwin Scerri was not found guilty of that charge because of the error of venue in the charge. A case of the law being made an ass of, not for the first time. He was still found guilty of defiling two boys (including the rape victim) in his care and was sentenced to five years in prison. Yet, this guy has the cheek to appeal against his sentence. As is Charles Pulis, now defrocked. He was sentenced to six years in jail for defiling nine teenagers in his care over a span of two decades. The 94-page judgment published on Wednesday exposed harrowing experiences 11 boys aged between 13 and 16 were subjected to as far back as 20 years ago leading up to 2003. Pulis and Scerri, both members of the Missionary Society of St Paul are on bail until the appeal judgment is given. Contact: pamelapacehansen@gmail.com
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