Pope’s meeting with victims included ‘new’ Gozitan case
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Pope Benedict XVI historical meeting with sex abuse victims last Sunday included a new case recently investigated by the Curia Response Team. The youth hails from Gozo and his story was proven to be true, having already led to disciplinary measures taken against the priest involved.
According to sources, the youth was the only one to come forward and formalise a complaint with the Gozo Curia, as a number of other youngsters are believed to have also fallen victim to abuses by the same priest but never had the courage to report what had happened to them.
The meeting with Pope Benedict - described as ‘powerfully emotional’ by the victims shortly after emerging from the Nuncio’s Palace in Tal-Virtù – served for the Gozitan youth to meet with seven of the victims from St Joseph Home who specifically asked the Pope, ‘why did they do this to us?’
As the Pope stressed that his Church will do all it can to ensure justice in all cases of abuse, the eight men all expressed satisfaction that the meeting served as a ‘closure’ to their trauma.
While the world headlines were dominated by the meeting, other headlines included the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada announcing the reopening of its case against Fr Godwin Scerri.
Fr Scerri is one of the three MSSP members who face criminal charges in the Maltese courts for sex abuse committed on boys in their custody at the St Joseph’s orphanage in Sta Venera.
In Canada, Fr Scerri had been accused of sexually abusing minors between 1983 and 1987 when he served in the province of Ontario.
In a statement to the Canadian press, an Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson said, that allegations from the case recently came to light and that the “Ontario police would like to see him extradited from Malta to Canada to face charges, and that a Canada-wide arrest warrant for Fr Scerri was still valid.”
Traced by MaltaToday, Fr Godwin Scerri stressed on not commenting about the renewed investigations in Canada.
He replied: “I don’t care what the Canadians are saying. I have already told the court what I had to say.” He slammed the phone, seemingly forgetting he never appeared in any Canadian court, given that he absconded to Malta before even being charged.
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