Victims of Italy’s paedophile priests demand abuse probe into Catholic Church
Religious and lay associations have come together to call for an independent inquiry and to urge the Italian government to protect children from sexual abuse by the clergy, writes Sofia Barbarani in Rome
When Antonio Messina summoned the courage to tell his local church in Sicily that a trainee priest had sexually abused him for several years while he was a teenager, the young man expected to be believed and supported.
Instead, Messina was dismissed as a liar and the Catholic seminarian was swiftly relocated to Ferrara in northern Italy, where he was ordained. The priest in question – Giuseppe Rugolo – allegedly went on to abuse another three children.
Rugolo was arrested last year and charged with abusing children in his care. He has denied the charges against him.
More than seven years after he first came forward, Messina, now 28, is speaking out again – this time as part of a movement.
On Tuesday, he joined the online unveiling of the hashtag #ItalyChurchToo and the launch of “Beyond the Great Silence”, an initiative by nine Catholic and lay organisations that aims to do what no one has done before in Italy: convince the Catholic Church to launch an independent investigation into child sexual abuse.
Messina is one of at least 360 people in Italy who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the past 15 years, according to non-profit Rete l’Abuso (The Abuse Network), an organisation that has been tracking and raising awareness of clerical abuse and one of the groups behind “Beyond the Great Silence”, and which says the real number is likely to be far higher.
“If we can, in one way or another, avoid this happening to others, then these horrible stories can at least serve to change something,” Messina said after recounting his story during the launch event.
Other European countries including France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal have ongoing investigations into the alleged crimes and have succeeded, to some extent, in unearthing predators within their churches.
The situation in Italy is dramatic
Last week, a commission in Portugal, primarily funded by the Catholic Church, said more than 200 alleged victims born between 1933 and 2006 had come forward since its launch a month ago.
But in Italy, a country where the church continues to hold immense power and where institutions as well as private individuals have sometimes ignored or covered up the clergy’s wrongdoings, tangible change feels like a distant possibility to some.
“The situation in Italy is dramatic,” said Francesco Zanardi of Rete l’Abuso. Zanardi was raped by Nello Giraudo, a priest in Savona, when he was 13 years old. The priest served just over a year in prison in 2012 for the abuse of a minor. Giraduo left the priesthood after his release from prison.
After years of abuse Zanardi turned to drugs, his relationship fell apart, and he found himself alone. Until 2010, when he set up Rete l’Abuso.
Since then, he has advocated for the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) to launch an investigation akin to that of other European countries – thorough and completely independent of the church.
“Not an internal one, like Italy scandalously suggested,” he says.
Gualtiero Bassetti, who steps down as the head of the CEI in May, recently spoke in favour of an internal investigation.
The CEI, which is responsible for deciding whether to ask the church to open an investigation, was contacted by The Independent, but was not available for an interview by deadline.
Some victims are pinning their hope for change on Bassetti’s successor, although many more say they would never trust an internal investigation by the conference.
The reality is obviously grim ... it’s a record of innumerable destroyed lives
But scrutiny and calls for justice must extend beyond the church, says Zanardi. “I do wonder where the politicians are, where the parliament, the state and the judiciary system are, where the ministry of interior is, where the guarantor for the protection of children is.”
Perhaps more importantly, the 50-year-old survivor lays the blame firmly on Italian media for turning a blind eye and not covering the topic. “I especially point the finger at them,” he says. “The government can be negligent, but if the press informs the citizens, then they can mobilise – unfortunately there’s no information.”
Beyond the need for an independent investigation and more media coverage, is the need for new legislation. Italian law has, at times, hindered rather than helped in the battle against child sexual abuse.
The use of prescription law in Italy means that authorities cannot pursue a crime if it is reported after a certain number of years, and will only do so if a new victim within their prescribed period reports the same offence. This in turn helps pave the way for paedophiles to continue preying on children, according to campaign groups.
In Italy, 160 out of the country’s 52,000 priests have been found guilty of sexual abuse over the past 15 years. However, some 170 accused priests are estimated to have vanished, according to research carried out by The Abuse Network.
Father Hans Zollner, a senior Vatican official and the Pope’s main expert on abuse, referred to Italy as a “Pandora’s box” of hidden sex abuse by priests in an interview with The Times this week.
But while the Vatican is notoriously slow when it comes to righting its wrongs, some members of the church feel it is heading in the right direction.
“The reality is obviously grim, if you look to the past, of course it’s a record of innumerable destroyed lives,” said a former Lutheran priest, who is now preparing to become a Catholic priest.
“I am mildly positive that we are moving in the right direction,” said the Rome-based seminarian, who asked to remain anonymous. “The Church has a particular responsibility for looking after the weak and when these things happen it’s horrendous, it should be taken as seriously as possible.”
The Catholic Church faced a storm last month when an independent report by German lawyers found that Pope Benedict had failed to take action against clerics in four cases of alleged abuse when he was its archbishop between 1977-1982.
"The Church, with the help of God, is carrying out with firm determination the commitment to bring justice to the victims of abuses committed by its members,” Pope Francis said the day after the report was released in late January.
Despite his reassuring words, too many victims have already lost trust in the Catholic Church.
One such person is Erik Zattoni, a young man whose mother became pregnant with him at 14 when she was raped by a local priest in 1980.
The perpetrator, Pietro Tosi, continued to be part of the clergy until his death in 2014 at the age of 87 – meaning the Zattoni family were never able to obtain justice.
“My mother raised me and she’s a wonderful mother,” Zattoni said during the launch of “Beyond the Great Silence”.
“But I can see it in her eyes that she’s a victim, that she’s different – unfortunately this is the problem, these people are completely abandoned to themselves.”
“What must we do so that these priests, these people, these criminals are convicted?” Zattoni added.
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