Vatican's Child Abuse Prosecutor to Be Appointed Auxiliary Bishop – Reports

By Matthew Vella
Malta Today
October 5, 2012

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Vatican-s-child-abuse-prosecutor-to-be-appointed-Auxiliary-Bishop-reports-20121005

Mgr Charles Scicluna is expected to be appointed auxiliary bishop to Malta.

Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican prelate who for many years stood by the side of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the Catholic Church's congregation for the doctrine of faith, is expected to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Malta.

Scicluna, 53, the Vatican's promoter of justice and chief prosecutor in the clerical sex abuse scandals that rocked the Roman Curia in the past decade, is expected to take up the role of Bishop Annetto Depasquale, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa.

La Stampa's specialist Vatican Insider blog noted that his promotion outside the Vatican's inner circle, by sending Scicluna back to his native island, was not expected.

"Scicluna was the incarnation of the zero-tolerance policy towards the church sex abuse cases and he sustained Ratzinger's activity when it came to changing existing laws and canonical norms, but above everything else a change in mentality: he brought to the frontline the suffering of abuse victims and he promulgate so called emergency laws. And this was the subject of internal discussions inside the Holy See," La Stampa said

Born in Toronto to Maltese emigrant parents, Scicluna - diminutive in appearance but a man of great stature inside the Vatican - graduated in laws and was ordained a priest in 1986. In 2001 he became one of Pope Benedict XVI's - then cardinal - closest collaborators in what was once the Office of the Holy Inquisition, today called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

Scicluna has been a supporter of greater collaboration between Church teams investigating child abuse allegations and the civil authorities.

"We are talking about a very sad phenomenon which does not only sinful but a crime as well," Scicluna had said back in February. "Being a crime, the State has the relevant jurisdiction to act and people have a duty to collaborate with this state criminal jurisdiction."

In comments to Vatican Insider, Scicluna had said the determination to tackle clerical sex abuse was highlighted by both popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. "There is now a greater awareness of the risks for the community, of the damages caused to young people, of the duty the ecclesiastical authorities have to collaborate with canonical and civil justice."