The influential Washington Post has carried an extensive coverage of the work carried out by Malta’s Archbishop Charles Scicluna in matters related to sexual abuse in the Church.

“He’s the man the pope sends in” each time the Vatican faces a major sex abuse scandal runs the headline of the piece written by Chico Harlan, who then goes in on the long list of times when Scicluna was called in by the pope to tackle difficult issues.

“Nothing prepares you for the wounds,” Scicluna told the newspaper. “You don’t get used to it.”

He is sent to places where cardinals or bishops are accused of committing abuse; where officials are suspected of burying evidence or systematically ignoring victims; where the church has profoundly failed and squandered trust. Over the past decade-and-a-half, he has led at least four major investigations on four separate continents, interviewing hundreds of victims, during feverish days he likens to an “ant working in summer", the Washington Post says.

Scicluna has developed a reputation — even among some wary abuse victims and advocates — as one of the rare Vatican officials who appreciates the seriousness and scale of the church’s abuse crisis. Victims say Scicluna presents himself as a listener and fact-finder, sensitive but also meticulous in pinning down dates and specifics.

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