For 20 years, Father Fortunato Di
Noto and his colleagues have been working to protect children from
pedophiles and pornographers.
The fact that some church leaders have
protected abusers makes Father Di Noto very angry.
"Woe, woe, woe to those who cover up these things. When God cries for
these children, a church that covered up these facts will not be able to
stand," he told reporters March 16.
The Sicilian priest is the founder of Meter, an association that began
in his parish in Catania after an 11-year-old girl was attacked and
other children came forward with stories of abuse.
Meter is now a nationwide organization that staffs a telephone hotline
for reporting child sex abuse and child pornography and operates several
centers where concerned parents and victims of abuse can receive
counseling and assistance.
Father Di Noto said his group is interested in uncovering and stopping
abuse wherever it happens, and he believes Meter is just one local
example of how the Catholic Church as a whole is taking child sexual
abuse seriously as both a sin and a crime.
"I know a few bishops have mishandled some cases, but this has not compromised the entire church," he said.
Meter works closely with Italy's postal and telecommunications police in
monitoring the Internet. At a news conference hosted by Vatican Radio,
the priest presented his organization's report on pedophilia and child
pornography online in 2010.
Father Di Noto said the most frightening thing discovered over the past
year is the growth of online pornography involving "infantophilia," or
sexual abuse of infants under the age of 2.
Working with Italian authorities since 2003, the staff of Meter has
monitored almost 700,000 websites and reported more than 65,000 of them
to police in Italy and around the world because they contained
pornographic photographs or videos of children, he said.
The only place online where child pornography seems to be declining, he
said, is on social network sites, which have become more diligent in
monitoring who uses their sites, the priest said.
Meter staff members visit dozens of Italian dioceses and schools each
year to educate people about the phenomena of child sexual abuse and of
child pornography online, Father Di Noto said.
In 2010, he said, the group surveyed 1,722 students ages 8-16 in Sicily
about their use of the Internet: 29 percent said they use a computer to
chat; 23 percent said they use it to download files; 17 percent said
they use it to play games.
The most chilling thing, the priest said, is that 62 percent of the
children said they had received invitations to meet in person someone
they had met only online.