Vatican City, Mar 13, 2010 / 13:08 pm
The Avvenire newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference printed an interview on Saturday which sheds light on how cases of sexual abuse are dealt with in the Catholic Church. The role of then-Cardinal Ratzinger in the providing the guidelines for the Congregation's processing of 3,000 cases in the last nine years is also examined.
Avvenire interviewed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's "promoter of justice," Monsignor Charles J. Scicluna, who investigates crimes against the Eucharist, the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance and the sixth commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," all of which fall under the category of "delicta graviora" (serious transgressions).
In the interview, which is printed in its entirety in English on Vatican Radio's website, Msgr. Scicluna affirms the Church's historically firm stance against pedophilia, saying that "the condemnation of this kind of crime has always been firm and unequivocal." He concedes, however, that in practice "It may be that in the past - perhaps also out of a misdirected desire to protect the good name of the institution - some bishops were ... too indulgent towards this sad phenomenon."
He added that secrecy in the cases has not been practiced to hide facts, but has been employed in the "investigative phase" to protect "the good name of all the people involved; first and foremost, the victims themselves, then the accused priests who have the right - as everyone does - to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty."