The Catholic Church could close by August its enquiry into the case of four Maltese priests accused of sex abuse, one of the alleged victims said Friday.Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Vatican's Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Thursday started meeting 11 Maltese men who claim they were abused by priests some 20 years ago in an orphanage.
His aim is to gather direct information to supplement the work being carried out by the Maltese Archdiocese, which has been accused by the alleged victims of delaying proceedings.
During the one-on-one meetings, Scicluna, who happens to be a Maltese national, listened to graphic details of abuse, according to Lawrence Grech, 38, one of the alleged victims.
"He was disgusted with our stories," said Grech, who says he was abused by a priest when he was 11 years old.
"It wasn't an interrogation. He spoke openly and helped us open up. More importantly, he took note of certain details that were ignored by the police," Grech told the German Press Agency dpa.
Grech asked any other men who might have experienced similar abuse to come forward to strengthen the case.
The Vatican official told the accusers he hoped to wrap up the case by August.
The four priests, including one who is Rome-based, will be called in for questioning by Scicluna.
A police investigation is also being held into the allegations which first surfaced in 2003.
"So many years on, all we want is justice ... It angers me that the same man who inflicted this abuse on me is still wearing a priest's robes," said Grech, who was among those granted a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Catholic island last April.
The Vatican recently also said it would dispatch four senior clerics to Ireland in September as inspectors chosen by the Pope to investigate the handling of sex abuse cases involving priests.
In recent months revelations of clerical sexual abuse have surfaced in countries across the world, including in the US, the Netherlands and Germany.
SIC: ET