Abuse Case Priest Barred from Contact with Minors

Times of Malta
August 21, 2014

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140821/local/abuse-case-priest-barred-from-contact-with-minors.532570


A Gozitan priest charged with defiling three girls has been banned by both the civil and Church authorities from contact with minors.

The priest, who served as a religion teacher at a boys’ secondary school in Malta,

was barred from entering classrooms until the court proceedings were over, an Education Ministry spokesman said.

The crimes the priest was accused of were allegedly perpetrated in Gozo and were unrelated to his work at the school.

Church sources said the priest’s pastoral activities were stopped the moment the case was referred to the police.

Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said yesterday he followed all civil and Canon law protocols in this case and would do so in other cases.

The priest had been active within a Christian organisation and the scout movement. He stopped being involved with the scouts three years ago and the police did not ask any official of the movement for information.

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