Mons. Scicluna on Pope’s mission to safeguard Children

February 19, 2013: “Pope Benedict XVI will certainly be remembered for his extraordinary reply and response to the very sad phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors by the clergy. He was very active during the Pontificate of Blessed John Paul II, with the Congregation of the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Santitatis Tutela, a universal law of the Church which gave very precise and detailed procedure on how to respond to sexual abuse of minors”, said Monsignor Charles Jude Scicluna, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Malta, served as the “promoter of justice” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until October 2012.
While speaking to Vatican radio in the days leading up to Pope Benedict’s resignation, Mons. Scicluna reflected on the Pope’s determination to respond adequately to abuse and to safeguard the innocence of children and young people.
Bishop Scicluna was in fact the man who embodied the line of zero tolerance of sexual abuse against minors, adopted by Pope Benedict. He supported the Pope’s efforts to change canonical laws and existing laws and above all, the mentality placing special emphasis on the suffering of abuse victims and promulgating a series of “emergency” laws.

Mons. Scicluna said: Pope Benedict also revised this law in 2010 making procedures more flexible and assuring an adequate response. In his letter to the Church in Ireland in 2010, in his pastoral visits to the United States, to Malta, to Australia and the United Kingdom he met and showed great compassion to the victims of abuse. His words will remain with us as a clear sign of the determination of the Church to respond adequately to abuse and also to safeguard the innocence of our children and young people”.

Mons. Scicluna was effectively the prosecutor of the tribunal of the former Holy Office, whose job it is to investigate what are known as delicta graviora: the crimes which the Catholic Church considers as being the most serious of all and include crimes against the Eucharist and against the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance, and crimes against the VIth Commandment committed by a cleric against a person under the age of eighteen.