Those, believe it or not, were the words spoken by the Bishop of Gozo, Mario Grech, about the children in the home he visited when questioned by reporters about the outcome of the investigation by the Commission he himself appointed to look into alleged abuse in the Church run homes in Gozo.

Now, since this is a super sensitive country I want to be clear that none of the criticism I am making in this article is personal, (this bishop like the new archbishop seems like a very good person, but to be honest that is to be expected from a member of the Church, not something we should feel grateful for). However, if the Church wants to rise in the public’s esteem, it has to stop pussyfooting around this subject of abuse of children by the clergy. It has to send out a strong zero tolerance message, and also has to refrain, as the Bishop of Gozo probably inadvertently did, from commenting in a way that in my view could easily be interpreted as perverting the course of justice.

This whole area of dealing with abuse of minors by men and women of the cloth also came out in a survey following the appointment of the new archbishop, where a full third regarded this as a priority area; in fact the second most important area after safeguarding the family. So pretending it isn’t a real problem is not the way to show the public you are going to treat this with the utmost seriousness, including expelling those who abuse and turning them over to the police and the courts for immediate investigation and trial.

First of all it is totally wrong that allegations of abuse are not picked up right away by the police. I cannot see why abuse in a private home is reported to the police but in a Church home not as promptly. The Church should not, must not, and should not even want to police itself. Yet it seems that in these cases they are still being allowed to do so. Why? Members of the clergy have no right to be treated differently to other citizens, particularly in the area of child abuse, alleged or otherwise, and if legislation is required then our parliamentarians must legislate. Or enshrine the right not to be abused by anyone, including a nun or a priest in our Constitution. And what has happened about the alleged abuse in the Hamrun home? How long is this going to take to come to trial? As long as it appears to be taking to bring the judges to trial? That should have been dealt with quicker than quickly, since those being charged include the former Chief Justice himself.

Are they hoping or thinking people have forgotten, or will forget? If anything it makes it worse because it gives the wrong impression that there are some people we do not want to bring to trial, be they judges or members of the clergy. Prostitutes and Arabs, East European dancers, they are the easy, soft targets and the trial happens amazingly quickly in superficial cases don’ t they.

So while I think this Commission that the Bishop appointed has a very tough task, they are not detectives, they are not police and I would have far greater faith in the system if the police, without any interference from politicians or priests, were allowed to carry out a full and thorough investigation when these allegations surface. Besides anything else, the Bishop should not be allowed to choose the people who investigate the Church or its members. The Church should be totally removed from the situation. Would you ask a criminal to choose his own jury? Would you ask an organisation under suspicion to investigate itself? Of course not. None of this makes any sense and the Church will not win back the respect of many if it persists in cover-ups.

The Catholic Church all over the world has dealt with this area by covering it up. They only started changing a little when there was such an outcry when the few brave ones made the claims, which were almost always true! Please bear that statistic in mind. There is very little pretence in child abuse cases, though the Church seems to want to fob us off with this idea. We now know that in the States abusive clergy were simply moved to another parish, to abuse again as it turned out!

I know it is normal for a profession to close ranks. Doctors often defend other doctors. Lawyers other lawyers. Architects hate being in a position where they have to check the work of another architect. But the Church is different. It is not a professional entity. It is a spiritual entity of supposedly, and in many cases I would like to believe, good people who have supposedly given their lives to God, so the standards we expect are super mortal, and definitely not sub mortal which is what child abuse is. But I am almost more bothered by those who cover up the abuse than I am by the abusers, who may have been victims of abuse themselves. How can anyone whose mind is in the right place cover up for a bully

and a paedophile? The psychologists can excuse or explain the paedophilia but why do others persist in cover-ups?

I wonder how the comments of the Bishop of Gozo made the Commission feel.

First he lambasted them for being a bit slow because he was anxious to hear the result. Then he basically, inadvertently or otherwise, implied nothing was wrong because the children look loved. I mean do you think any kind of a paedophile or abuser who is under investigation goes on bullying and abusing if they know they are being investigated. Pity those children who made those allegations. They have the whole force of those who look after them not wanting any abuse to be found. Not only the meek are silent in Malta, so too are all or most of the children who are abused in Church homes.

Would you talk if you saw with what little seriousness the society you lived in treated these allegations?

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