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Benedict XVI met with a delegation in April. "But since then nothing has changed"
of DAVID CARLUCCI LONDON - The letter written in Italian have pidgin , contaminated from English, which still is spoken in Malta. But the message addressed to the Pope, is clear: "We find ourselves very disappointed because these priests today still roam the streets dressed as priests." The victims of abuse with which Benedict XVI prayed in April during his pastoral visit to the archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean refer to heads of violence: in spite of the apologies and tears of Ratzinger, the men are still in place. "Why the Church in Malta still protects these scandals? Why do priests have admitted in 2003 and everything goes on as if nothing had happened?".
Everything is the same as before, say former students of the orphanage of Santa Venera, once forced to dress like a woman or to indulge in the night, the sexual perversions of the priests.
firmness of the Pope - December 20, speaking to the Roman Curia, has again lashed out against the abuses committed by priests, who "under the sacred mantle of deeply damaged human being in its infancy and bear damage to all life "- over the Strait of Sicily do not get that faint echoes. The criminal proceedings against the priests, after seven years, has not yet been completed.
And in these days a lawyer who assists the priest in charge, Gianella Caruana Curran, lodged an application to the Maltese Constitutional Court challenging the "media overexposure" of their clients, not yet considered: a legal artifice, a completed investigation to take time in view of the above. After the Pope's visit, in fact , the priests continued to proclaim himself innocent in court, although in the first interrogation they admitted to police. It is not even started, however, the ecclesiastical trial.
Yet "investigatio after", the internal investigation conducted by the "Response Team" of the Maltese Curia following cases of pedophilia, has already been completed, as explained in a letter sent to victims in October, the missionaries of St. Paolo, the order in which those accused priests, Charles Pulis, Conrad Sciberras (transferred later in Italy, Lazio Albano) and Joe Bonnet. The letter explains that she took the precaution of not letting the priests in contact with children. As for the accusations are well founded and that is why we sent the documents to Rome. "
But abuse victims do not dispute Benedict XVI. Instead, they return to thank him for taking the time has mostly during their visit to the island. And upon him: "We are still suffering and we have no justice after seven years. Please help us you, we ask a lot." The fear of Lawrence Grech, one of the six signatories of the appeal, is that eventually their cases end up being buried.
"In Malta, the Church, political power and the judiciary are one thing - he says - so true that a minister has failed in court to testify in favor of priests. Few, even in opposition, they want to defend ourselves: the people are very religious and priests are afraid to touch. But we can not forget. And even to talk with our children. "
Their letter was also in the hands Monsignor Charles Scicluna, promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Catholic faith by Ratzinger delegated to deal with cases of child abuse.
Scicluna, also Maltese, but prefers to refrain from comment. But barely manages to hide the "humiliation" for the grueling times at which the case was treated by the authorities and the Curia of his nation. A slow pace that threatens to nullify all the efforts of Benedict XVI to clean inside the church, feeding the frustrations of the victims.
(08 January 2011)
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