VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press
November 13, 2018
By Nicole Winfield
Pope Francis is giving a prominent new role to the Vatican’s most trusted sex crimes investigator as he seeks to improve the Holy See’s response to abuse at a time when the church and papacy are facing a credibility crisis.
Francis on Tuesday named Archbishop Charles Scicluna as a deputy, or adjunct secretary, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that processes sex abuse cases globally.
Scicluna had been the congregation’s chief prosecutor for a decade and was credited with pushing through measures making it easier to defrock pedophiles. But Pope Benedict XVI sent him to his native Malta in 2012 as bishop after Scicluna’s tough line ruffled too many feathers in the Vatican.
Scicluna’s new appointment is symbolically significant and will also give him greater say in the day-to-day running of the congregation, even though he technically retains his post in Malta.
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