ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 20, 2013
ROME – Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta served for ten years as the Vatican’s top prosecutor on child sex abuse cases, and is today seen as a global leader for a “zero tolerance” stance. In an interview today in the Italian paper La Repubblica, Scicluna commented on the furor surrounding Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and his looming participation in the papal election, saying that Mahony made mistakes and will have to “decide in conscience” whether to take part.
Scicluna also commented on the case of the late Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, asserting that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the lone official of the Roman Curia who kept his distance from Maciel as the facts of his misconduct became known in 2004.
An NCR translation of the interview appears below. It was conducted by Paolo Rodari, the Vatican writer for La Repubblica.
Monsignor Scicluna, who is Mahony?
A very humble cardinal who wasn’t successful in stemming the cases of pedophilia in his diocese in a way that would have been correct.
Did you ever meet him?
Several times, in private meetings in my office, both in the years when Joseph Ratzinger was prefect and with William Joseph Levada. He came to ask help and advice about how he should act.
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