Mgr. Scicluna Leaves the Vatican

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
October 5, 2012

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Monsignor Charles Scicluna

The man who acted as a symbolic figure in the battle against paedophilia is to take up his new post as Auxiliary Bishop of Malta

Mgr. Charles J. Scicluna - the prelate who fought alongside cardinal Ratzinger and then Pope Benedict XVI in the battle without boundaries against the sad phenomenon of clerical sex abuse against minors – is leaving the Vatican.

His appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of his hometown of Valetta (Malta) will be announced tomorrow. In recent years, Scicluna has held the role of Promoter of Justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a transferral has been on the cards for a while. What was unexpected is the fact that he is being given a role outside the Roman Curia.

Scicluna embodied the line of zero tolerance of sexual abuse against minors, adopted by Benedict XVI and supported the Pope's efforts to change canonical laws and existing laws and above all, the mentality: he placed special emphasis on the suffering of abuse victims and promulgated a series of "emergency" laws. Not surprisingly, these special laws sparked an internal debate in the Holy See.

Scicluna was born to emigrant Maltese parents, in Turin, in 1959. At the age of 19, having started a law course at university, he decided to enter the seminary. He was ordained priest in 1986, continued his studies in Rome, graduating with a degree in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. His thesis supervisor was American monsignor Leo Burke (now cardinal) and he presented it to Professor Navarret (also now cardinal). He caught his superiors' eyes immediately. "They wanted me to stay in Rome, in the Apostolic Signature, but the archbishop called me back to Malta, where I taught at the university for five years. I acted as "defender of the bond" in marriage nullity cases, I worked in the parish" Scicluna told Vatican Insider in a long interview.

In 1995 after Rome's insistent calls, Scicluna finally gave in and accepted the nomination as Substitute Promoter of Justice of the former Holy Office. Thanks to the new laws, all paedophilia case files were reopened. Investigations were launched and finally, two years later, the Congregation also began to investigate the founder of the Legion of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel. Now he returns to Malta as Auxiliary Bishop of the island.