MALTA
Telegraph (Australia)
AAP
THE “most terrible” cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy have come to light, but the Church should not lower its guard, says the Vatican’s former sex crimes prosecutor.
Malta Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna told the Sunday Times of Malta that he expected the number of priests banned from the clergy on pedophile charges to stabilise at around 100 per year, after a peak of 384 cases in 2011-12.
“It’s not the time for complacency, but time to be aware and proactive. The innocence of children is non-negotiable,” said Scicluna, who until 2012 worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s disciplinary watchdog.
He said the spike in defrocking cases recorded in 2011-12 was due to a backlog of cases.
The figures were publicised after Thursday’s hearing of the Holy See before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, in which Scicluna and another Vatican envoy were grilled about the long-running worldwide scandal of pedophile priests.
Scicluna said facing eight hours of questioning “was tough”.
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