MALTA
Malta Today
Matthew Vella 22 January 2015
The Curia’s new commission on the protection of children is investigating an alleged case of abuse that has not yet been referred to the police, Apostolic Administrator Charles J. Scicluna said on PBS’s Dissett.
Scicluna, temporarily at the helm of the Maltese archdiocese pending the Vatican’s decision on the next archbishop, said the church had forwarded two cases to the police.
Scicluna said the new commission, which replaces the Curia Response Team headed by retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, will be investigating all reports before forwarding them to the police.
He was challenged about the lack of transparency of hearing such cases behind closed doors, and demanding that criminal cases involving clerical sex abuse be heard behind closed doors in court. Even archbishop emeritus Paul Cremona – presenter Reno Bugeja revealed – was allowed to testify behind closed doors in the criminal case against the MSSP priests accused of sexually abusing orphans in their care at the St Joseph Home in Hamrun.
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