Pope Won’t Be Lenient on Paedophile Priests – Scicluna

By Matthew Vella
Malta Today
January 22, 2014

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/Pope-won-t-be-lenient-on-paedophile-priests-Scicluna-20140122

Charles Scicluna served at the Vatican for 17 years

The Roman Pontiff will not be showing any leniency towards priests guilty of paedophilia, the Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna has told the Reuters news agency.

Scicluna, the Vatican's former sex crimes prosecutor, said the number of clerics defrocked by the Vatican was likely to have fallen to about 100 in 2013 from about 125 in 2012.

"I have met with Francis and he has expressed great determination to continue on the line of his predecessors," Scicluna said, having served in the Vatican for 17 years.

"His gospel of mercy is very important but it is not cheap mercy. It has to respect the truth and the demands of justice."

Francis has set up a commission of experts to address the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, and to consider ways to better screen priests, protect minors and help victims.

Scicluna was the Vatican's expert last Thursday in Geneva when United Nations child protection experts pushed Holy See delegates to reveal the scope of the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests.

Published Vatican records show that in 2011 the number of priests defrocked hit a recent peak of some 260.

Scicluna said the rise was due to "contingent backlog problems with some historical cases" and that he expected the numbers were "stabilizing" at about 100 in 2013.

"Dismissal is imposed and dispensation presupposes the request of the priest but the effect is the same," he said.

The Church has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation in sexual abuse cases worldwide, bankrupting a string of dioceses.