Ministry Reacts As Curia Clarifies Minister's Comments on Paedophile Priests

Times of Malta
April 3, 2014

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140403/local/ministry-reacts-as-curia-clarifies-ministers-comments-on-paedophile-priests.513461


The Curia has clarified comments reportedly made by Minister Helena Dalli when speaking in Parliament yesterday.

In a statement, the Curia observed that the minister was quoted as saying that paedophile priests should be made to answer for their actions before the Civil Courts like all other men who committed such crimes.

The Curia said this was already being done and the media had given great publicity to the recent case where two priests were taken to court and subsequently jailed.

Furthermore, it was not correct, the Curia said, that “there was an anomaly in that if a priest and a man abused of children, the former was removed from the priesthood or sent to another diocese, while the other man was taken to court and sent to prison if convicted.”

The fact was that a priest was judged by the Church Tribunal which could strip him of the priesthood but he could still be taken before the civil courts. Thus, a priest was judged twice, before the Tribunal and the Courts, the Curia said.

“The proceedings before the Church do not replace the state’s proceedings,” the Curia stressed. Neither did they deny the victims their right to report any crime to the civil authorities.

The church was committed to observing the laws of the state, the Church said.

MINISTRY'S REACTION

In a reaction, the Ministry for Social Dialogue said in a statement that the two priests mentioned by the Curia were “taken to court and subsequently jailed” because the victims reported the crime to the police.

The point she was making in Parliament was about when no such report was made by the victim.

In these cases, the Curia, although privy to information regarding sex abuse by priests, did not report to the police, the ministry said.

The ministery said the minister was quoting from an article she wrote in 2010:

“retired Judge Victor Caruana Colombo said that "it would be useless for the Church to report priests involved in sexual abuse cases to the police because no criminal action could be taken without the victim's consent". Nothing is written in stone.

"That used to be the case with domestic violence too, until we changed it. The police have to prosecute once they have a report even if submitted by neighbours or relatives. Abuse that takes place in the privacy of the home is not exempt from criminal prosecution once exposed. The identity of the victim can be protected. Evidence can be heard behind closed doors. The victim need not face the perpetrator; IT makes video-evidencing possible.

"Thus, if the Catholic Church really wanted to attack the child abuse cancer more than it wanted to protect its priests there are ways of prosecuting perpetrators criminally without harming victims.

"Why should it be acceptable that a priest child abuser is treated differently from a lay one? Is it just, for the former to be defrocked while the latter is sent to jail for the same crime? Why is the information regarding the cases of priest paedophiles not handed over to the police?

"In an interview given by Mgr Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican's chief sex abuse "prosecutor" points out: "In some countries with an Anglo-Saxon legal culture, but also in France, the bishops - if they become aware of crimes committed by their priests outside of the seal of the sacrament of confession - are required to report them to the civil authorities... our position in these cases is to respect the law."

Dr Dalli was speaking about the need to emulate these laws which the, now, Auxiliary Bishop of Malta Mogr. Scicluna was at the time saying must be respected," the ministry said.

This, in the best interest of children.