Italian bishops apologise to victims

ITALIAN bishops from the northern diocese of Bolzano have apologised to victims and promised to co-operate with prosecutors.

The region’s German-language newspapers have reported several cases of victims coming forward with tales of physical and sexual abuse in a convent in the 1960s.

In response Bishop Karl Golser launched an internet campaign to urge victims to come forward, setting up an email address for victims to send reports of abuse.

He expressed his “sincere regret” to all victims and said he would forward all claims of abuse that fall under the statute of limitations onto prosecutors.

Up to now there has not been an avalanche of reported cases of clerical abuse in Italy such in Ireland and Germany, even though Italy with its 50,850 priests in a nation of 60 million has more than all of South America or Africa.

Last year known incidents of clerical abuse against children totalled 73 cases with more than 235 victims. Subsequently, a priest who tracks paedophilia in Italy, the Rev Fortunato di Noto, confirmed there were about 80 priests in Italy who had been implicated in the past 10 years.

Last week, the Vatican official in charge of handling clerical sex abuse, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, implied there might be many more cases that simply haven’t come to light.