VATICAN CITY
Malta Independent
In an interview carried by yesterday’s edition of La Repubblica, Auxiliary Bishop Mgr Charles Scicluna says that the paedophile tragedy inside the Catholic Church ‘could have been avoided’.
Mgr Scicluna was asked about a remark reportedly made by Pope Francis in a discussion with the paper’s editor Eugenio Scalfari that 2% of all paedophiles in the world are priests. Mgr Scicluna who was Promotor of Justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith between 2002 and 2012, said that while he has examined hundreds of cases, he did not carry out a statistical study.
Asked why to report such cases is not obligatory in the Church, Mgr Scicluna replied that the church always insisted on following domestic law and in any case one must not hinder the victim from reporting the case.
He admitted there has been a recent improvement in the theological understanding of sexual abuse of minors by clerics in the church. Pope Francis has said that violating a minor is equal to profaning the Eucharist.
Mgr Scicluna was asked whether Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI have covered up for abuse but the Vatican always replied it is the local bishops who were responsible. Mgr Scicluna seems to agree with this latter interpretation and said that if bishops had followed the Church’s law, many tragedies may have been avoided.
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