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Priest’s victim to tell court how Fenech groomed her and other women
By Jurgen Balzan
Malta Today
November 2, 2014
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/45729/priests_victim_to_tell_court_how_fenech_groomed_her_and_other_women#.VFYHePnF-So
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| Fr Charles Fenech |
One of Fenech’s alleged victims who spoke to MaltaToday on condition of anonymity, said that though the Church has known about the allegations for years, Fenech has never been removed from his position as director of the Kerygma Movement
A Curia spokesperson has denied that Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona offered money to a woman who claims to have been violently sexually abused by Fr Charles Fenech, a former provincial of the Dominican order in Malta.
Reliable sources have told MaltaToday that some months ago one of the alleged victims of sexual abuse by Fenech was offered a “hefty sum” by Cremona to remain silent.
However, in reply to questions sent by MaltaToday, a Curia spokesperson said “your assertion is completely false. Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona never offered any sum of money to persons claiming abuse.”
The reply followed a brief appearance by Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna on PBS’s Xarabank on Friday, in which the Maltese Church’s temporary leader described any attempt to buy somebody’s silence as “the biggest insult to the Church.”
Fenech is now facing charges of violent sexual abuse against a mentally unstable patient and holding the woman against her will and committing indecent acts in public.
While deploring the Church’s slow reaction to alleged cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, Scicluna said that he could not ascertain whether any money was offered to one of Fenech’s alleged victims, “but any attempt to buy somebody’s silence is the biggest insult to the Church.”
The case was brought before the Church’s Response Team when Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mercieca was at the helm of the Maltese archdiocese, and internal investigations continued when Cremona, who like Fenech is a Dominican friar, was appointed Archbishop in 2007.
One of Fenech’s alleged victims who spoke to MaltaToday on condition of anonymity, said that though the Church has known about the allegations for years, Fenech has never been removed from his position as director of the Kerygma Movement.
In 2001, Fenech – who succeeded Cremona as the Dominican Order’s provincial in Malta – was awarded the Gieh ir-Repubblika medal and made a member of the National Order of Merit.
The victim, who will testify in court against Fenech as a witness for the woman who filed the charges, alleged that Fenech “targeted vulnerable women” and that she knows of at least 15 other women who claim to have fallen for Fenech’s advances.
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