Charlot Zahra
There will be an onslaught of foreign journalists attending the Papal Visit over the next weekend. More than 300 journalists, representing various media organisations from across the globe, have been accredited for the two-day visit.
The additional requests from foreign journalists this time around are mainly due to the fact that the foreign media are covering the battery of child abuse accusations against the Catholic Church that have engulfed the Vatican over the past few months: in Ireleand, Germany, Austria, Italy and the US, among others.
Many journalists will be waiting for any sign from Pope Benedict about the Church’s reaction to this scandal, which has taken a local dimension after Lawrence Grech, on behalf of a group of ten children that were abused by Catholic priests in St Joseph Home, has called for a meeting with the pope.
However those who thought that the exposure for Malta would be positive are in for a surprise, as most of the coverage generated to date in the foreign media has been associated more with the paedophilia scandal, than with Malta’s traditional image as a Catholic stronghold.
For instance, the online edition of the British Sunday newspaper The Observer carried an extensive story about British victims of religious paedophilia also seeking a meeting with the pope.
Riazat Butt, the Observer’s religious affairs correspondent, reported that this weekend Benedict visits Malta, “itself shaken after botched handling of abuse claims.
“It was reported this month that 45 priests had been accused of sexual offences since the creation of a church response team in 1999.
None of the cases has been referred to the police – the retired judge who heads the project said that was the responsibility of victims and parents,” the Observer reported.
“Amid the expressions of regret from bishops about paedophile priests in their ranks, there is also quiet fury about the €750,000 bill for the two-day trip,” the Observer’s report concluded.
The story was illustrated with the picture of the papal billboard in Malta scrawled with “pedoflu” and adorned with a Nazi moustache underneath the Pope’s nose, circulated by French news agency Agence-France-Presse photographer Ben Borg Cardona.
Grech’s press conference has received global press coverage yesterday, with Iran’s Press TV, the site of the Iranian regime’s English-language news channel, carrying the report on its website with the title: “Malta sex victims urge Pope apology”.
“Victims of paedophilia by priests in Malta have requested a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, when he visits the Mediterranean island on the weekend,” the unsigned report by Press TV noted.
It explained how eleven Maltese men “who claimed to have been sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests in the 1970s have demanded a personal apology from the Pope”
“Yes I want to meet the Pope and I want his apology…to help us heal and overcome this trauma,” Grech was quoted as saying.
“If Pope Benedict agrees, it will be his first meeting with victims of clerical abuse since 2008, when he met such groups in the United States, Canada and Australia,” the Press TV report added.
The US media also gave strong coverage to the press conference, since clerical paedophilia has been a touch subject, with the US referring most of the cases to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which decides on the more serious cases of clerical paedophilia.
An Associated Press report by Times of Malta night editor George Cini highlighted the fact that the 10 men, speaking at a news conference on the island, “promised they would not protest the pilgrimage by Pope Benedict XVI that begins Saturday on this predominantly Catholic nation”. On Sunday, sister paper Illum had exclusively interviewed separately Mr Grech, and Gaetano Scerri, had declared that they were going to protest against the Papal Visit in Malta
Grech was quoted as saying that he and the other nine wanted “justice done and seek a meeting with the pontiff so that what they call a ‘hurtful chapter’ can be closed”. czahra@mediatoday.com.mt
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