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Pope won’t be lenient on paedophile priests – Scicluna
Auxiliary Bishop says Catholic pope’s gospel of mercy ‘is not cheap mercy’
22 January 2014, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
1 min read
Charles Scicluna served at the Vatican for 17 years
The Roman Pontiff will not be showing any leniency towards priests guilty of paedophilia, the Maltese bishop Charles Scicluna has told the Reuters news agency.
Scicluna, the Vatican's former sex crimes prosecutor, said the number of clerics defrocked by the Vatican was likely to have fallen to about 100 in 2013 from about 125 in 2012.
"I have met with Francis and he has expressed great determination to continue on the line of his predecessors," Scicluna said, having served in the Vatican for 17 years.
"His gospel of mercy is very important but it is not cheap mercy. It has to respect the truth and the demands of justice."
Francis has set up a commission of experts to address the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, and to consider ways to better screen priests, protect minors and help victims.
Scicluna was the Vatican's expert last Thursday in Geneva when United Nations child protection experts pushed Holy See delegates to reveal the scope of the decades-long sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests.
Published Vatican records show that in 2011 the number of priests defrocked hit a recent peak of some 260.
Scicluna said the rise was due to "contingent backlog problems with some historical cases" and that he expected the numbers were "stabilizing" at about 100 in 2013.
"Dismissal is imposed and dispensation presupposes the request of the priest but the effect is the same," he said.
The Church has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation in sexual abuse cases worldwide, bankrupting a string of dioceses.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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they should face justice like everyone and not just being defrocked by the pope!wearing a SUTTANA just does not make one escape justice before man and god!
Priscilla Darmenia •
This pope is continuing to show he is different from his predecessors. – Paedophile religious men and women need the strong hand of the law to fall on them to pay for their crimes. – They are not only guilty of criminal acts but even guiltier of giving a bad example to the faithful that were entrusted to them.
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If we still had the death penalty that is what all paedophils(who ever they may be) deserve in its torturous best. But unluckily one has to content him/herself with compensation, which in my opinion does not make the lightest of nightmares to disappear!
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Maybe the financial aspect of having to pay up millions for their hineous crimes has forced the pope to act but now society want justice to be retirbuted at the hands of the law since they have been defrocked. When is this phase going to take place in our lifetime or will they just be going through the motions as has beed carried out in the past.
