“There is no other way to humility than humiliation”: for Msgr. Charles Scicluna the re-emergence of the child sexual abuse crisis, is for the Church an opportunity to respond to the “thirst for justice” of the victims and of all the people of God. Synod Father, the Archbishop of Malta was from 2002 to 2012 director of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, i.e. the “public prosecutor” of cases of sexual abuse. His presence at the daily briefing on the Synod on Youth taking place in the Vatican (3-28 October) inevitably turned into a press conference on recent months news and the prospects for the near future.
The Synodal Assembly, the Maltese prelate said, is not the place from which to expect “quick answers” to the theme - “tremendously tragic” - of sexual abuse. On the other hand, the presidents of episcopal conferences around the world convened by the Pope in February for an ad hoc summit will be an opportunity to address issues such as greater accountability of bishops, the slowness of ecclesial justice, the necessary cooperation with civil authorities.
Pope Francis, who in 2015 appointed him president of the College for the examination of appeals to the ordinary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in matters of delicate graviora, has recently sent Msgr. Scicluna to Chile to investigate the charges against the pedophile priest Fernando Karadima at the center of the scandal of the diocese of Osorno where a pupil of the latter, Monsignor Juan Barros, who in the meantime resigned, was appointed bishop.
The present situation is “a very important moment because one of its fruits can be our becoming humbler, and there is no other way to humility than humiliation,” Msgr. Scicluna said in response to the long series of questions addressed to him by journalists in the Vatican press room. “What do I think of people saying, “you do one thing and say another, shame on you!”? I think they’re right. We must be ashamed of ourselves. And I think there’s no other way than humility, and silence. I don’t have an instant recipe, sometimes these things take much longer than you imagine. At the same time, I think there are many holy priests out there. As the Pope wrote, holiness is the encounter of my weakness with God’s mercy. And there are many priests who live in holiness and change people’s lives. This miracle happens every day and certainly doesn’t win the headlines, like the letters and counter-letters do, but it happens every day. I don’t just think so, I see so, every day. We need to have this strong sense of reality, and not think that the letters we send are the most important thing in the Church, because otherwise it’s like living in a bubble. You understand that when you meet people who have changed their lives by meeting a holy priest, even if a burning tree makes more news than a growing forest.
During the Synod, the Maltese prelate said, “a very important moment was the mea culpa pronounced by Archbishop Fischer (Anthony Fisher of Sydney, ed.) I think he interpreted the feelings many of us share. The issue of child sexual abuse is in Instrumentum laboris, at point 66, so it is not something that comes from the back door, it was an already present issue. It is an experience that some young people have had of the Church, seeing Church men who say one thing and do another. My impression is that the theme has been addressed in all language groups, which will have to find more space in the final document. We know that most of the victims are young, we need to talk about the wounds inflicted by those who should have taken care of them: it’s more than tragic, it’s tremendously tragic. And Pope Francis, surrounded by bishops from all over the world, has the same desire to move from words to action, to make the Church a safer place, and to lead different cultures to apply the letter that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent to all episcopal conferences around the world in 2011 to propose guidelines then revised by the same congregation. We need to go to the root of abuse, to increase accountability. And not only for what we do, but also for what we do not do, as the Holy Father made clear with his motu proprio on neglectful bishops, which was a very strong message. We bishops who are responsible to God only or to our conscience but also to our people”.
“This Synod, however, is not about abuse. We have an important meeting in February, with the presidents of the episcopal conferences of the whole world - Scicluna recalled - and I think that this will be the moment when we must address the issue not only of prevention but also of accountability: I think that this will be the best place. I don’t expect quick answers to this synod, there are many other questions in discussion, but the February meeting is the right meeting for these questions”.
More specifically, in the Church “a greater accountability of the bishops is expected” and “I believe that we must trust Pope Francis for the making of a system where there is greater accountability”. At the February summit, for which “fortunately I am not responsible”, “as bishop, president of the small Maltese Episcopal Conference, I think that first we must realize, even if coming from different countries and cultures, that sexual abuse is not a problem linked to a single culture or a single geographical part of the world, as someone said in the past. Then, of course, different cultures have different ways of dealing with the problem, there are cultures in which shame is the greatest impediment to uncover abuse. But we must go to the root of the problem: Pope Francis calls it clericalism and we must be more concrete to identify this perversion of the ministry , we must counter the tendency to treat the ministry as a source of power. And then there is the question of clerical formation and selection.
And then there is the issue of cooperation with civil authorities. It is fundamental to give our communities answers, because the problem concerns us all and everywhere”. Regarding young people, many of whom do not go to Church, “the point is not the Church or the bishops but Jesus: if you find Jesus you want to be there with Him. Families are not made of saints, many are sinners - join the club! - but people continue to start families. To young people I would say: you have thirst for justice, you have thirst for God, concentrate on the loving and tender face of Jesus, and at that point you will want to be part of the Church family, even if it is full of sinners”.
To those who asked, in clear reference to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s case, whether the Church should not consider sexual abuse of adults with the same severity as sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults, Scicluna responded by recalling that the equalization of adults with disabilities to minors, in ecclesial law relating to this crime, is already a “development in the law of the Church” introduced by Benedict XVI: “I don’t know if the law will develop further, but I think that the question should be taken into consideration”, not, in any case, at this Synod but always at the February meeting.
“What I regret, perhaps - Scicluna said again - is that justice (ecclesial, ed.) sometimes takes a time that is a bit exaggerated, and this is a problem that causes great pain to Pope Francis, I know as a direct witness how much the Pope suffers from slowness. But there is also civil justice that must be respected, because the answers must not only be within the Church, but if the crime is civil we must respect civil jurisdiction and subject the guilty - as Benedict XVI says in his letter to the Irish faithful - to the consequences of his deliberate actions. As bishop, now, I am on the other side of the desk, I live this experience as pastor of my people: a father to the priest who sins, a father to the victim. As bishop I’m tragically torn. Seeking the truth is essential, but I have learned, in my service to my Church, a small Church, that I need the help of those who are expert, I cannot trust in my prudence only, for there is a spiritual emotion, there is a closeness that does not allow me to keep the distance necessary for a serene judgment. That is why I have created a group of lay experts to carry out the investigation and give me the indications for a judgment, and this leaves me quite serene to be a pastor in the service of the truth and the safety of my people”.
To the young people who have suffered an abuse “I have little to say: I would prefer to cry with them, as has happened to me many times. In the face of this tragedy silence and tears are the first answer. But then there is a great thirst for truth and justice, which is not incompatible with mercy, because we all need mercy but mercy is empty if it does not respect the truth. We must say sin to sin: this is justice. When Pope Francis speaks of holiness, in Gaudente et esultate, he recalls that Jesus spoke of “thirst and hunger” for justice because thirst and hunger are the strongest instinct: it is as if without justice we could not live because the thirst and hunger for justice are radical, fundamental. And when I meet victims - no longer young because to talk about painful experience sometimes takes years - I find a great thirst and hunger for justice, which I share.
The daily briefing was also attended by Thomas Leoncini, a young man who interviewed the Pope on the issue of youth, and the auxiliary bishop of Lyon, France, Emmanuel Gobilliard, who in recent days interviewed the Pope for a few minutes in a video that he then posted on his Twitter account: “It was very spontaneous, I met him, I asked him for a short speech and he lent himself with great simplicity,” he said.
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