Pope Benedict XVI in an unusual move invited cardinals from
around the world to a daylong summit Friday at the Vatican to discuss
some of the key issues facing the church, including its handling of
clerical sex abuse scandals.
While attention
has focused on many abuse cases in the U.S. and Northern Europe,
revelations are now emerging on the Vatican's doorstep.
A trial has been
under way in Italy for months, and the defendant, Don Ruggero Conti, a
charismatic 55-year-old priest, is charged with molesting seven boys.
At
each hearing, many parents, including Giovanna Baretta, come to cheer
the priest and show their support. Baretta, who has known Conti for
decades, entrusted her son, now 30, to his care.
"We
believe this is a conspiracy, a witch hunt," she said. "They are
slinging mud against an exceptional priest. It's all part of an attack
against the church."
The atmosphere outside
the courtroom is tense. The alleged victims, their lawyers and their
families are escorted by the police because of death threats; threats
have also been made against the presiding judge.
The
alleged victims — some as young as 13 at the time of the alleged abuse —
have given detailed descriptions of sexual violence.
One
witness, 24-year-old Matteo Mongiu, told the court that boys would
often sleep at Conti's house and that the priest would ask one of the
boys to sleep with him in his room.
Mongiu testified that the priest
never abused him, but he said it annoyed him when Conti would fondle him
and lick his ears.
Plaintiffs' lawyers say
the trial has already made history.
They say it's the first time an
Italian bishop has taken the stand in such a case.
That
bishop, Gino Reali, Conti's direct supervisor, admitted he knew of the
accusations made against Conti by numerous people two years before the
arrest.
Reali was visibly uncomfortable when he was asked why he did not
stop Conti's contact with children.
"I tried
to stick to facts because I believed I needed to act based on facts,
not rumors," he said, in Italian. "Lots of rumors end up on my desk."
The
Vatican requires bishops to inform the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith if an accusation has a semblance of truth.
The congregation
then decides if a church trial is warranted.
Reali testified he didn't
think there was sufficient evidence.
The
bishop's testimony was one of the rare occasions in Italy where a
high-ranking prelate has had to answer to civic authorities.
But the
trial has received minimal coverage in the Italian media.
This
is a sign, Vatican watchers say, of the Holy See's influence over
everything that happens in what's known as the Shadow of St. Peter's
Dome.
Roberto Mirabile, president of an
association that works on behalf of victims of pedophilia, laments that
in Italy clerical sex abuse is still a taboo topic.
"What we see is a
very disconcerting mentality of a church hierarchy which still does not
grasp the devastating effects of pedophile crimes on minors," he said.
"This trial is proof of how much hypocrisy exists around this issue."
Yet continuing revelations of widening sex abuse scandals are beginning to have an impact even in Italy.
Not
long after Reali's testimony, the Italian Bishops' Conference
acknowledged that it is possible that its members covered up abuse, and
it revealed that in the past decade 100 Italian priests have faced
church trials for sexual abuse of minors.
But no information on the trials' outcome was made available.
SIC: NPR/INT'L