Roma, Italia – ECA Global, un’organizzazione internazionale dedicata a porre fine agli abusi del clero, terrà una conferenza stampa il 23 maggio 2024, alle ore 10:00, in Piazza Adriana, accanto a Castel Sant’Angelo, a Roma. La conferenza ha luogo pochi giorni prima delle celebrazioni vaticane per la Giornata mondiale dei bambini del 25-26 maggio, in cui Papa Francesco ospiterà l’evento inaugurale del Vaticano, accogliendo circa 70.000 bambini da tutto il mondo a Roma per due giorni di programmi e festeggiamenti. Queste attività, condotte e supervisionate dal clero cattolico, si svolgeranno non solo nella Basilica di San Pietro ma anche in tutte le diocesi d’Italia.
Annunciando l’evento, Papa Francesco ha detto: “Come Gesù, vogliamo mettere i bambini al centro e prenderci cura di loro“. Ma i dati dimostrano che i vescovi cattolici italiani hanno fatto esattamente il contrario. Secondo le organizzazioni antiabuso italiane, si stima che in Italia ci siano circa 1.000.000 di vittime di abusi sessuali da parte del clero.
L’ECA e altri sostenitori stanno richiamando l’attenzione su quelli che identificano come problemi sistemici all’interno della Chiesa. Hanno intenzione di mettere in evidenza quelli che descrivono come i cinque peggiori vescovi d’Italia, che hanno presumibilmente coperto i sacerdoti che hanno commesso abusi, nascosto la loro identità ai genitori e trasferito abitualmente i colpevoli a nuove parrocchie.
I quattro vescovi italiani con il peggior record di protezione dei bambini nelle loro diocesi sono: Mons. Rosario Gisana, vescovo di Piazza Armerina
Il cardinale Sepe Crescenzio di Napoli Cardinale Luis Ladaria Ferrer, ex capo del DDF
Il cardinale Mario Delpini di Milano
“Nessuno vuole aprire questo vaso di Pandora”, ha detto p. Hans Zollner, il principale esperto vaticano di abusi dal 2014 al 2023, quando si è dimesso dalla Pontificia Commissione per la Tutela dei Minori di Papa Francesco. In Italia c’è un undicesimo comandamento che dice: “Non fare brutta figura””, ha detto Zollner al Times di Londra.
La situazione dei bambini maltrattati e delle loro famiglie in Italia è particolarmente grave.
Devono affrontare notevoli barriere legali e culturali per denunciare gli abusi del clero sia ai funzionari della Chiesa che alle autorità civili. I preti pedofili italiani godono spesso di un alto livello di immunità da indagini e procedimenti penali.
Un trattato tra il governo italiano e il Vaticano fa sì che quasi tutte le indagini sugli abusi in Italia siano condotte in segreto all’interno della giurisdizione della Santa Sede, piuttosto che nel luogo in cui si sono verificati gli atti criminali. Di conseguenza, anche i sacerdoti riconosciuti colpevoli di crimini sessuali contro i bambini dai tribunali ecclesiastici sono spesso riassegnati a nuove posizioni dove possono potenzialmente recidivare.
L’azione di Justice Initiative si articola su due assi principali. Quello riguardante il passato chiede in particolare per le vittime di abusi quattro cose: verità, riconoscimento, riparazione e prevenzione. Una mozione a riguardo è stata depositata presso il Consiglio d’Europa, che si sta occupando del dossier.
Il secondo asse concerne il futuro ed è concretizzato da una petizione lanciata da Justice Initiative a livello di Unione europea e che ha finora raccolto oltre 325mila firme. Essa chiede che Bruxelles assuma una posizione di leadership mondiale e voti a favore dell’attuale proposta di legislazione CSAM dell’UE, rendendo internet #safeforkids. La raccolta di firme è ancora in corso: l’NGO ha ancora un mese abbondante per raggiungere il traguardo delle 500mila sottoscrizioni.
Justice Initiative è attiva in una dozzina di Paesi europei, dove conduce pure campagne a livello nazionale. In Italia la NGO – che è in collegamento con altre associazioni che lottano per i diritti delle vittime come, ad esempio, Rete l’abuso – sostiene una proposta di legge per adottare politiche efficaci contro la violenza in danno di bambini e bambine, a cominciare dalla messa in atto di adeguati strumenti conoscitivi e di azioni di prevenzione di un fenomeno che insiste in modo preoccupante su tutto il territorio. Tra le varie attività condotte in Italia finora c’è la campagna di prevenzione nelle scuole superiori del Veneto e azioni di volantinaggio a sostegno della petizione a Torino, Roma e Venezia.
Per appoggiare le sue campagne Justice Initiative ha nel corso degli ultimi anni creato alcuni strumenti. Primo fra tutti l’esposizione fotografica itinerante “SHAME – European Stories” realizzata dal fotografo italiano Simone Padovani e già allestita con successo in numerose città tra cui Venezia, Milano, Madrid, Lisbona, Bucarest, Berlino e Helsinki e al Palais De L’Europe a Strasburgo, sede del Consiglio D’Europa. Un catalogo che riunisce i ritratti delle vittime facenti parte del progetto “SHAME – European Stories” è già stato pubblicato in sette lingue. La NGO ha anche patrocinato diversi eventi accademici, tra cui un simposio a Berna (Svizzera), e dei convegni a Parigi, a Ghent (Belgio) e a Lisbona. La lotta contro gli abusi e in favore delle vittime viene portata avanti anche sui canali social di Justice Initiative, in particolare Instagram, facebook e tiktok.
Il progetto è appoggiato sostenuto e condiviso da numerosi associazioni nazionali e internazionali tra le quali troviamo: Rete L’Abuso, Ecpat, Emergency, Chile Safety On, Cnca, La Gabbianella, Eca Global, Brave Movement, Snap, e tantissime altre che trovate nel sito di Justice Iniziative.
Vittime di abusi e maltrattamenti da tutta Europa condividono le loro storie per chiedere di migliorare le leggi per proteggere i minori da abusi e maltrattamenti.#
23 Marzo 2023, ore 12.00, presso Casa Emergency, Milano – La mostra rimarrà aperta fino all’8 aprile.
Dall’Italia alla Svezia, dalla Romania al Portogallo: negli ultimi mesi, i ritratti di quasi 100 vittime di abusi su minori sono stati raccolti in tutta Europa. Mai la dimensione del problema è stata catturata in questo modo.
Foto e video realizzate nel 2022 da Simone Padovani, fotografo e psicologo internazionale, che documentano le ingiustizie danno voce alle vittime.
La mostra “SHAME – European Stories” che fa parte del progetto europeo Jsutice Initiative, sarà allestita in tutta Europa dopo essere stata al Palais de la Europe a Strasburgo e gode del patrocinio del Consiglio d’Europa, ed è a supporto della campagna europea Justice Initiative #SAFEFORKID
Saremo lieti di accogliervi all’inaugurazione della mostra fotografica:
SHAME – EUROPEAN STORIES
GIOVEDI 23 MARZO 2023 Ore 12.00 presso CASA EMERGENCY Via Santa Croce, 19, 20122 Milano MI
INTERVERRANNO ALL’INAUGURAZIONE
Dr.H.C.Guido Fluri – Iniziatore di Justice Initiative Europa
Luisella Pavan-Woolfe – Rappresentante del Consiglio D’Europa
Emma Bonino – rappresentante di +Europa
Manuela Valenti – Emergency ONG Onlus
Simone Padovani – Autore della mostra e responsabile della campagna Justice Initiative Italia
Francesco Zanardi – Vittima e presidente di Rete L’Abuso
Parigi, 22 febbraio 2023 – La distribuzione di materiale pedopornografico online (CSAM) sta crescendo in modo esponenziale: da 1 milione di segnalazioni nel 2010 a 32 milioni nel 2022, che comprendono 88 milioni di immagini e video. I rapporti indicano che alcune aziende attive e con server nell’UE sono diventate i maggiori host di CSAM a livello globale (passando dall’ospitare più della metà di tutto il CSAM rilevato nel 2016 all’85% nel 2020). Questo dimostra un’allarmante tendenza all’aumento: l’Europa sta diventando un centro di distribuzione di immagini di violenza sessuale su internet e l’unico modo per impedirlo è arginare il flusso alla fonte, presso i fornitori di servizi internet. “Questa violenza sessualizzata su Internet deve essere fermata”, ha sottolineato oggi Guido Fluri, ideatore di Justice Initiative, “perché dietro ogni immagine c’è un abuso. E dietro ogni abuso c’è la sofferenza di un bambino”.
Insieme ai gruppi di vittime e alle organizzazioni per la tutela dei minori di tutta Europa, Justice Initiative ha lanciato una petizione internazionale che mira a migliorare la legislazione dell’UE. Guido Fluri ha sottolineato: “Da un lato, i sopravvissuti alla violenza sessuale dovrebbero ricevere maggiore sostegno. Dall’altro lato, si tratta di evitare che i bambini continuino a subire abusi. Chiediamo che l’Unione Europea assuma una posizione di leadership globale e voti a favore dell’attuale proposta legislativa per prevenire e combattere gli abusi sessuali sui minori, in modo da poter proteggere tutti i bambini e gli adolescenti e rendere giustizia ai sopravvissuti.”
La Commissione europea accoglie la petizione
Antonio Labrador Jimenez, Team Leader per la lotta agli abusi sessuali sui minori presso la Commissione Europea, ha spiegato durante la conferenza stampa la natura cruciale della proposta di legge dell’UE per prevenire e combattere gli abusi sessuali sui minori negli anni a venire. Senza questa legislazione, non ci sarà un modo legale per garantire che i fornitori di servizi Internet proteggano i bambini nell’Unione Europea.
La legislazione stabilirà le regole per le aziende di internet al fine di impedire la circolazione di immagini e video di bambini che vengono abusati sessualmente e di altre vittime e sopravvissuti, e per evitare che gli adulti si avvicinino ai bambini online per abusarne sessualmente. Se necessario, la legislazione richiederà alle aziende di individuare, segnalare e rimuovere tali immagini e video. La legislazione prevede inoltre la creazione di un Centro dell’UE per la prevenzione e la lotta contro gli abusi sessuali sui minori che garantirà la trasparenza e la responsabilità di questo processo e faciliterà gli sforzi per assistere i sopravvissuti in tutta l’UE. Antonio Labrador Jimenez accoglie con favore la petizione di Justice Initiative in quanto contribuirà a richiamare l’attenzione sui problemi che la legislazione intende risolvere.
Gruppi di protezione dell’infanzia: L’attuale protezione contro gli abusi è insufficiente
“Dobbiamo agire subito”, afferma Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen (Finlandia), direttrice esecutiva di Suojellaan Lapsia, Protect Children, una delle principali organizzazioni europee per la protezione dei bambini. Per i sopravvissuti, afferma Vaaranen-Valkonen, il solo fatto di sapere che un video o una foto di un abuso viene diffuso su Internet è devastante. C’è urgente bisogno di una regolamentazione e di una nuova legislazione, afferma Vaaranen-Valkonen: “L’attuale legislazione basata su sforzi volontari non è più sufficiente. È giunto il momento di difendere i diritti dei minori e di chiedere collettivamente regole vincolanti per rendere Internet sicuro per i bambini. Noi di Justice Initiative siamo al fianco delle vittime e dei sopravvissuti”.
Gruppi di vittime europei sostengono la petizione
Gruppi di vittime di tutta Europa si sono impegnati con Justice Initiative. Uno di questi è il Brave Movement, un movimento internazionale di sopravvissuti e alleati che chiede di porre fine alla violenza sessuale infantile in tutto il mondo. “Sosteniamo l’appello di Justice Initiative insieme a molte altre ONG”, ha dichiarato Mié Kohiyama alla conferenza stampa di Parigi, co-presidente del gruppo di lavoro Bravemovement Europe e co-fondatrice di BeBraveFrance. Anche diverse vittime di abusi su minori hanno testimoniato alla conferenza stampa. Tra queste c’era Saga, una sopravvissuta svedese: “Sono onorata”, ha detto Saga, “di far parte della campagna europea di Justice Initiative e di essere circondata da altri attivisti e associazioni per i diritti dei minori. Oggi lanciamo la prima petizione europea contro gli abusi sui minori, una campagna fondamentale per garantire a tutti i bambini il diritto all’infanzia, senza abusi sessuali. Dobbiamo agire ora. Esorto l’UE a portare avanti i suoi sforzi per sostenere i sopravvissuti e a fare tutto ciò che è in suo potere per combattere questi abusi. Dobbiamo essere tenaci e non dobbiamo arrenderci. Cominciamo tutti a firmare questa petizione”.
Justice Initiative è attiva anche in Italia: anche qui la raccolta di firme è già iniziata e nel corso del mese di marzo prenderanno il via una serie di eventi volti a sensibilizzare l’opinione pubblica in merito.
Sostegno politico al Parlamento europeo
Tra i numerosi sostenitori politici c’è l’importante europarlamentare tedesca Marion Walsmann (relatrice ombra presso la Commissione per il mercato interno riguardo alla proposta di regolamento che stabilisce norme per prevenire e combattere gli abusi sessuali sui minori). A suo avviso, i fornitori di servizi devono essere maggiormente responsabilizzati in modo che il materiale pedopornografico non solo possa essere individuato e rimosso più rapidamente, evitando così la sua diffusione, ma che si possa anche aumentare la prevenzione. “Ovviamente la protezione dei dati e la privacy degli utenti di Internet sono importanti, ma la protezione dei dati non deve diventare la protezione degli abusatori. Ho firmato la petizione (Justice Initiative) per una migliore protezione dei bambini in Europa e dovresti farlo anche tu, e non lo dico come europarlamentare ma come madre di due bambini. Perché ogni bambino abusato è uno di troppo”, ha dichiarato l’eurodeputata Walsmann.
Geneva 7 February 2019; “The Committee is concerned about the numerous cases of children being sexually abused by religious personnel of the Catholic Church in the territory of the Member State and for the low number of criminal investigations and prosecutions by the Italian judiciary”.
di Francesco Zanardi – These are not our words but those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, more precisely those contained in the recommendations of 7 February (point 21 of the report) that the Committee for the Rights of the Child disputes with Italy – in this case – against the Italian Justice, but continuing, in the same document, also against the Italian Government defaulting and conniving, to the detriment of Italian minors “sacrificed to the clergy” for mere diplomatic relationship, with a foreign state, leader in the world for pedophilia: the Vatican.
What I will tell you has been widely documented and confirmed also by two investigative journalists, Emanuela Provera and Federico Tulli, who have even made a book “Giustizia divina” (publisher-Chiarelettere)
It all starts in 2014, when, after four years of activity of the newly formed Associazione Rete LʻABUSO, the documents of the various criminal cases that the association was following throughout Italy starting to arrive.
I began to notice, in various precautionary measures of the various prosecutors of the Republic of our peninsula, that many priests under investigation and under house arrest, many of them ended up in five structures, scattered from north to south of Italy. Although I had noticed this, I didn’t get to anything specific.
But in November 2016, in the middle of the night and seized by euphoria, my colleague from the Verona association for deaf students who were abused in the Catholic Institute Antonio Provolo in Verona, called me. He told me that Don Nicola Corradi (a paedophile priest who fled Verona in 1970) was arrested in Mendoza (Argentina). With him three other people.
The colleague asks me for help, they have thirty years of papers of the alleged victims (a hundred deaf children, now adults, who have never obtained justice), of the 27 priests and lay brothers accused of abuses in the Provolo of Verona, an infinite correspondence between them and the diocese. But in that tide of documents produced, they didn’t know where to start.
The folder was actually huge and incomprehensible to me, I didn’t even know the facts well, nor the characters. I decided then to make the first selection, eliminating all the documentation relating to deceased priests, and other data at that time not detected or incomprehensible, which I later saw again in a clearer context.
It was during that selection that at a certain point I arrived at Don Giuseppe Pernigotti. My eye fell on him because the Provolo Institute is a Congregation of Pontifical Right and the congregations, in general, even when they transfer them, always keep the priests inside them. Don Pernigotti instead no. It was, in my opinion strangely, to Fabrica (VT). I thought that I had to go deeper.
I searched on the internet and “tombola”, at first sight, I discover that Don Pernigotti was the President of the FIAS (Italian Federation of Priest Assistance) and while surfing the site, I understood about the FIAS assistance structures. A blow came to me, they were the same structures that returned to me in the documents of the various Italian prosecutors, the same to which the suspected priests were entrusted to the domiciliation. (Data confirmed by the heads of the structures and contained in the book-inquiry Divine Justice)
I decide that the issue must be deepened, but I don’t know how: a similar investigation is very expensive, and Rete L’Abuso does not have the resources.
I spent a few weeks, crossing the data I acquired. They were all connected, but I didn’t understand, until an LA7 journalist, Luca Bertazzoni, calls me asking if I had any case. I take the ball by introducing Don Pernigotti as one of the accused by Provolo’s students. I told Bertazzoni that I found him at Fabrica, where, in the meantime, I had sent an associate of ours to verify that he was the same Pernigotti of the Provolo. Luca Bertazzoni did the service, here he is:
Link to the video:
It emerges that Don Giuseppe Pernigotti manages or, at least, is at the head of a structure that appears to be assisting priests, but favouring them with a series of professionals and solutions that help them avoid civil justice. In the follow up of my investigation I discover that the FIAS is present throughout Italy, the one managed by Pernigotti was only the headquarters, whose website disappeared immediately after the service of LA7.
Finally, in my mind, many circles had closed and what was previously smoky, now it was very clear, too much. But who was I going to tell him about? I also knew that it was Justice itself that entrusted those under suspicion or the condemned to those facilities.
However, thanks to that service by Bertazzoni, who had pretended to be a pedophile priest and to whom don Giuseppe Pernigotti gave a “pizzino” with the indications, names and phone numbers to which to turn, I made a more detailed check. In the “pizzino” indicated the Agape Community that I already knew, but going deeper I will discover something that worries me. The Community is based in Via Forte Bravetta 338 (in the map on the side is indicated by the purple square) and borders with the Department of Penitentiary Administration, the National Autonomous Police Union and a dislocated seat of the Ministries of Grace and Justice. Of course from there, to advance and argue that there was a “cover-up” network run by the church and tolerated by the Italian state, what I had was not enough.
While deepening all this, I had repeatedly compared myself with one of the two authors of the book, Federico Tulli, a person I have known since 2010, whom I esteem and trust and with whom I often compare myself as he is also very experienced in the subject, already author of two books: “Church and pedophilia” and “Church and pedophilia the Italian case”.
Federico and Emanuela had already begun to investigate since the beginning of 2015, launching a journalistic investigation that will last almost three years, visiting these structures in person, interviewing those who direct them and documenting them. During their investigation, the number of facilities rises to 18, today we have identified 21.
What are these structures and how do they provide the clergy with impunity from prison?
(as you will discover in the book “Giustizia Divina” not only to paedophile priests)
As also confirmed by Provera and Tulli, who were able to enter in those structures, they appear as normal pensioners, with bedrooms, common areas, TVs etc. There is no control of the police, as normally happens to those who are under house arrest. You can receive visits, or at least nothing prevents it.
You can enter and exit with extreme ease. A group of priests in 2016 have confirmed that: worried about the comings and goings of faces known to the judicial chronicles, they pointed out the Villa Sacro Cuore (PG) structure.
But the most sensational case, which once again confirms the criticality as well as the lightness of the “home detentions” enjoyed by the clergy, is the case of Don Ruggero Conti, definitively sentenced to 14 years on the charge of having abused 7 children between 10 and 12 years old. He never did a day in jail (health reasons), he too was entrusted to a facility (which we will later discover used to care for adolescents) from which, without difficulty, in September 2017 he escaped, with so much money at his disposal to afford a taxi from Rome to Milan.
These are just a few cases and they are by no means the reason why Rete L’Abuso is firmly convinced – at this point, as we shall see, until there is evidence to the contrary – that exists between the Italian State and the Church, a tacit agreement that guarantees to the clergy impunity from prison.
We provide some numbers and some other data
From how it emerges on our map, removed the priests still awaiting trial, we count in the last 15 years, in Italy, at least 143 sentences definitively, we ignore which is the real submerged.
The authors of the book “Divine Justice” took the trouble, not only to verify what I claimed about the structures but, having removed the juvenile and female prisons, they asked the other 191 Italian prison facilities, how many priests have in charge.
125 prisons replied; only five priests, one of whom was convicted of pedophilia.
And all the others, what happened to them?
The perception for public opinion is that justice takes its course and condemnations, while instead most often do not make a single day in prison, on the contrary, the anomaly at this point rises on those 4 plus the 5th paedophile, who had a similar difference in treatment compared to other colleagues.
But the “holy” privileges and “divine” immunities that the Italian State provides to the clergy, unfortunately, are not limited to this and the damage to society, on this turn, is even worse.
I speak of the c.d. anti-pedophilia certificate, from which, by courtesy of the legislator, the clergy is exempt. And it is here that the connivance between state and church really scrapes the bottom of the barrel because on the constitutional basis it is already anomalous that a category should be privileged with this exemption: privileging only the priests would have been really too conspicuous and so, our legislator, not has exempted the priests, but precisely the whole category to which they belong, volunteering. Paradoxically, the category has always been more at risk.
Thanks to this luminary choice of the legislator – which legally becomes a civil responsibility – today paedophiles, not just priests, know that the Italian state has reserved volunteering for them, as a fertile hunting ground.
One of our legal advisors, the lawyer Mario Caligiuri of the Court of Rome (holder of the dossier in question) explains, with regard to the canonical rite, that “In this way it is generated by another court, in advance of the celebration of the ordinary rite, an unreasonable imbalance in favour of the alleged abuser »
“Not only is the assistance of the defender of those who has denounced the abuse not admitted in the ecclesiastical justice hall, but above all the psychological support of technicians with proven experience legitimized to work because the victim, a person who has suffered one, is denied. emotional upheaval does not incur the creation of false memories. Until it fails to comply with the provisions for the care and support of victims of the Lanzarote Convention “.
“Thinking about counter-examination, the most disturbing figure emerges from the side of constitutional guarantees.
The defence of a priest, already accused of abuses by the Vatican, has the advantage of acquiring, before the possible Italian trial, the narrative re-enactment that the victim will give of the historical fact, the weak points on which to tread the hand, the peculiarities even character, its emotional reality ».
With this information, you have the chance to make it fall into contradiction. “It is no coincidence that the reciprocal study of the adversary is a given that lawyers treat a lot in the processes – confirms Caligiuri -. We are therefore in the presence of unequal treatment in favour of Catholic priests compared to any other Italian citizen ».
In 2012, Italy ratified this protocol for the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Countries that are not members of the Council of Europe can also join, but the Vatican has never done so.
However, the canonical trials take place in the dioceses, on Italian soil, and this is, in fact, a violation by the church that, thanks to the complicity of the Italian institutions, which pretend not to see, finds not only the constitutional guarantees of citizens disregarded but also various international treaties and conventions to which Italy has adhered.
But there is more to support our accusations against the state. The complicit silence of the institutions
“An important excerpt from the movie Spotlight, at the end he cites those that in 2000, like today in Italy, were the centers that Rete L’Abuso and the book “Divine Justice”, we denounce today in Italy”. Richard Sipe, who worked in the treatment centers and who in this article we cite for his report, as part of the “Projections” on the phenomenon in Italy is already mentioned.
Among the most industrialized countries, Italy is the only one that has never considered – despite the impressive data emerging from other countries – the need to quantify the extent of the phenomenon.
The Irish colleague Mark Vincent Healy, an expert on statistics, based on the data emerged from the governmental inquiry commissions carried out all over the world has produced a projection of the Italian data, the extent of the abuses in Italy has the potential to be the greatest of any country.
And yet we did not lack the stimuli and requests to the Government to tackle the problem.
– On 27 September 2017, thanks to the Deputy Matteo Mantero, Rete L’Abuso manages to deposit in Italy the first parliamentary question addressed to PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS, MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR, MINISTRY OF JUSTICE, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND COOPERATION INTERNATIONAL. To date, no answer, the question still lies on the website of the Chamber of Deputies.
–On 19 February 2018, through the lawyer Mario Caligiuri, the ABUSE Network sends a warning to the following institutions; PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC, PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS, REGIONAL INFORMATION CENTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS – UN COMMITTEE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, PRESIDENCY OF THE 12TH SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMISSION.
Also, in this case, there will be no response from the Italian institutions.
–On October 18, 2018, again the Lawyer Mario Caligiuri, on behalf of Rete L’Abuso, denounces the Government to the Judicial Authority, based on the non-response and the consequent serious non-fulfilment by the State against minor citizens, already known from previous communications.
A few days later, this file will also be archived. Although it contained news of a crime, the Public Prosecutor’s Office limited itself, in the reasons, to file for territorial incompetence.
The whole affair was reported by the Associazione Rete L ‘ABUSO, to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, among the documents of the 80th section held in Geneva on 22 and 23 January.
On 7 February 2019, the Committee for the Rights of the Child of the United Nations gave us reason, disputing to the Italian State the points we report below, which only concern the matter that Rete the ABUSE, by Statute, pursues. (here the full text in Italian)
The video of the UN Committee Member Jorge Cardona who raised the topic during the two days of the session, is also shown on the video. The intervention is very short, the Italian State, even in that place did not give answers but limited itself to exposing, as measures, the same points that were the subject of the dispute.
Video of the interrogation of UN to Italy:
Below, in point 21 of the recommendations of the Committee for the Rights of the Child, as contested by Italy by the United Nations. Here are the points raised in our “Justice Report on the Italy case” speaker for the Network LUSA ABUSO Francesco Zanardi.
Exploitation and sexual abuse
Welcomes the national plan for preventing and combating the abuse and sexual exploitation of children 2015-2017 and the revitalization of the Observatory to combat pedophilia and child pornography, the Committee is concerned about the many cases of children victims of sexual abuse by religious personnel of the Catholic Church in the territory of the Member State and for the low number of criminal investigations and prosecutions by the Italian judiciary. With reference to its previous recommendations (CRC / C / ITA / CO / 3-4, par. 75) and to the general comment n. 13 (2011) on the child’s right to freedom and against all forms of violence against him and taking note of Objective 16.2 for Sustainable Development, the Committee recommends that Italy:
(a) Adopt, with the active involvement of children, a new national plan to prevent and combat the abuse and sexual exploitation of children and ensure their uniform implementation throughout its territory and at all levels of government;
(b) Establish an independent and impartial commission of inquiry to examine all cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic Church religious personnel;
(c) Guarantee the transparent and effective investigation of all cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by religious personnel of the Catholic Church, the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators, the adequate criminal punishment of those who have been found guilty, and the compensation and rehabilitation of child victims, including those who have become adults;
(d) Establish sensitive channels for children, for children and others, to report on the violence suffered;
(e) Protect children from further abuse, inter alia by ensuring that people convicted of child abuse are prevented and dissuaded from contact with children, particularly at a professional level;
(f) Undertake all efforts towards the Holy See to remove obstacles to the effectiveness of criminal proceedings against the Catholic Church’s religious suspected of violence against minors, particularly in the Lateran Pacts revised in 1985, to combat impunity of such acts;
(g) To make the reporting of any alleged violence against children to the competent authorities of the Member State obligatory for everyone, even for the religious personnel of the Catholic Church;
(h) Amend the legislation implementing the Lanzarote Convention to ensure that it does not exclude volunteering, including the Catholic Church’s religious personnel, from its prevention and protection tools.
With the Motu Proprio, Pope Francis confirms impunity from the penal trial for priests who abuse minors outside the Vatican and embassies.
It would be advisable, as well as a duty to report, for constitutional duty, that the press ask the State to account for this serious situation. But except for the Left magazine, which in recent years has given visibility to the case, everything is silent, despite our complaints.
Francesco Zanardi
President of the ABUSE Network (Association of survivors of sexual abuse of the clergy)
among the founding members of the international ECA Global
and President of the Human Rights Connect ABUSE Network
ROME — U.S. and Italian advocates for victims of pedophile priests are pressing for Italy to overhaul legislation that allows bishops to dodge accountability for predator clergy in the predominantly Roman Catholic country where the church wields considerable political influence.
A U.S. state legislator joined an Italian lawmaker and American and Italian victims of pedophile clergy at the Italian Parliament on Thursday to put a spotlight on what they described as significant gaps in how the Italian justice system handles the problem.
Francesco Zanardi, who heads an Italian survivors’ advocacy group, said Italy must revise its 1929 Lateran Treaty with the Holy See. He noted that under that agreement, bishops can refuse to respond to magistrates investigating their alleged roles in hiding pedophile crimes by priests.
Thus, as long as they personally are not being investigated for abuse, bishops “have the right to refuse to answer questions from the judiciary,” Zanardi told a news conference in the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament’s lower house.
The same treaty, he noted, also requires magistrates to inform church hierarchy they have started investigations of priests, effectively giving bishops more time to possibly discourage witnesses or victims from coming forward.
Italian law doesn’t require bishops to denounce cases of abuse by clergy, Zanardi said.
“There is a legislative vacuum,” he said.
The Catholic church holds a privileged place in Italian society and wields significant influence in politics. Parishes in small towns and big cities alike run after-school and weekend recreation programs for youngsters, since public schools don’t offer them. That gives priests easy access to minors.
A U.S. advocate for accountability for pedophile priests noted that the American Catholic church was forced to “be more transparent” after victims came forward as adults when several states opened windows on statutes of limitations. That nudged U.S. bishops to adopt a “zero tolerance” policy toward abusive priests.
But the Italian church still allows itself to be guided by canon law, which “gives the priest a second chance” and “leaves it to the bishop’s discretion” on whether a priest should be punished or removed from children, said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org.
It will be held in Geneva, from January 14 to February 1, 2019, at the headquarters of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the examination of the UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Among the States party to the Convention that will be “questioned” in the examination, in the 80th session of the Committee, we find Guinea, Syrian Arab Republic, Japan, Bahrain, Czech Republic, Italy, Belgium.
The Rete L’Abuso and its representation composed of President Francesco Zanardi, the lawyer Mario Caligiuri of the forum of Rome and Simone Padovani, will be present in Geneva, at the sessions of 22 and 23 January, the days in which the position of Italy will be examined.
The question raised by our association, which has as its purpose the protection of minors and especially those who have been abused by members of the clergy, is related to the connivance between the Italian State and the Vatican that at the time has not made any provision concrete contrasting the phenomenon or helping the victims.
The times for exposing everything have been relatively large, as Rete L’Abuso, together with colleagues of ECA Global, has been accredited to the United Nations only last June, and only then did we start working, in a context international unknown to us.
Thanks to the colleague Sara Oviedo Fierro (Ecuador), member of ECA Global and former vice president of the UN Committee, who has supported and directed us in a very broad, complex and unknown field, the “Justice” report produced by us and now available on site of the UN, is the summary of the protests that we advance, documented in recent months, which also highlights the inaction of Italian institutions that, to date, despite a parliamentary question, a warning to fulfil and a complaint, continue to remain silent.
For the Italian state it seems that the problem does not exist, so much so that, unlike other more developed countries, ours is the only one who has never treated the phenomenon. Yet just a glance at our map or the cover image to understand that, perhaps, even in Italy there is a problem.
Unfortunately, we share this affirmation to the point of having repeatedly asked ourselves in these years what sense it has to continue the work of denunciation by Rete L’ABUSO, which despite enormous efforts in Italy, it seems a struggle against windmills. Thinking then of the victims and the benefits that the Rete L’ABUSO project brings them, we are encouraged to find the strength and the courage to move forward. A reflection that does not derive from a moment of depression but from a series of factors that together create a deadly mixture that prevents not only the resolution of the problem, but also any type of preventive form in order to protect potential victims.
THE CONCEPT
Let’s start from the problem. Pedophile priests, who unlike the pedophile lay people, have the advantage of being able to enjoy the protection of an organization, which with criminal methods protects them and thanks to the culture of silence allows them to repeat dozens of times the number of abuses. Another problem of a cultural nature is the vision of pedophilia, which for the church is a crime against morality and not a crime against the person. A concept which has been highlighted to the UN in the report of 2014, which as long as it remains, will not allow the church the awareness of the crime committed and consequently not even civil interventions towards the victims, who in a similar concept are part of the sin that sees God as the only victim.
THE COURT OF BERGOGLIO
Speaking of clerical pedophilia, it is right to start from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Vatican organ that has the task of dealing with these cases) and its Prefect in office, Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer who is the former secretary of the CDF at the time when the Prefect was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. To be noted, Cardinal Ratzinger was also investigated in Texas in 2004 for cover-ups and saved from immunity. Ladaria is certainly not the person most suited to that charge who in fact boasts over the years a significant recidivism in the firing and protection of pedophile priests. One of the cases that made the most clamor is that of Don Giovanni Trotta who in 2012 was reduced to the lay laical and Ladaria who in a decree, ordered silence “to avoid scandal among the faithful”. So the ogre violated other children undisturbed. In the CDF, Ladaria treated dozens of other cases, all unresolved in at least, regarding justice for the victims.
After the new appointment that dates back to 3 July 2017, we immediately see Ladaria working to cover-up alleged abuses of the pope’s altar boys. Even here there is no solution indeed. The alleged molester, Don Gabriele Martinelli, was not only not even suspended, but in 2018 even collected reservations for the spiritual exercises of the Opera Don Folci, which was attended by the same Ladaria. A few days ago the news passed quietly in Italy, where Ladaria was sued in Lyon with Cardinal Philippe Barbarin and five others. A process that could be avoided because Ladaria is not in France and the Vatican has not yet given any answer on its participation in the trial that will be held next January.
But in the court of Bergoglio we find not only Ladaria, but also his colleagues like Cardinal George Pell, accused of cover-ups and abuses in Australia, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, protector of the pedophile priest Nello Giraudo, who helped in the election of Bergoglio, Archbishop Mario Delpini and his colleague Pierantonio Tremolada, who tried to cover up the case of Don Mauro Galli and again, the bishop Diego Coletti and his colleague Angelo Comastri, collaborators of the alleged abuses on the pope’s altar boys. Also Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, reported for the cover-up by the alleged victim on the basis of the Motu Proprio of Bergoglio, who never intervened. The list is still long and here you can consult the Italian clergy that cover-up cases.
Bergoglio collects accusations from one pole to the other on the planet, even if the Italian newspapers do not speak of it, he did not intervene in the case of the Veronese priest Don Nicola Corradi and now “the pope of transparency closes in silence” finally debunking the myth purely mediatic of the much acclaimed zero tolerance, which has never been there.
COMPLICATIONS
Unlike other countries, the Italian press seems to be an accomplice in the cover-ups and in recent weeks has limited itself to bring back the uncensorable or the news that comes from the foreign press, but it does not say a single word on Italian cases, and there are many besides those we have mentioned above.
In Italy we will never see a “Spotlight Case” because the television news organizations do not mention the phenomenon in the slightest. The printed paper timidly reports some cases, often only at the local level, without ever producing journalistic investigations that document the real national scope of the phenomenon.
FAVOREGGIATORI
In the various countries of Australia, Chile, the United States, Ireland, Germany and so on, we note a strong stance of governments and institutions and consequently of public opinion in the face of the scandals. In Italy, on the other hand, we can tell the sad record of how the highest public offices have betrayed citizens over the years to favor the church and protect pedophile priests. We recall in fact a very sad President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, who in 2010, when the scandal arrived in Europe, instead of asking the Government for actions in favor of the citizens, supported by the highest institutional positions, consoled Joseph Ratzinger for what he said was an “unqualified attack on the church and the pope.” The then Minister of Grace and Justice Angelino Alfano, following an interview released by the then deputy prosecutor of Milan Pietro Forno, also accused the Italian church of implementing systematic cover-up of abuse. After the interview, Minister Alfano did not start as expected an investigation as happens in other countries, instead he sent inspectors to the Ombudsman’s office.
Today, in 2018, the situation has worsened. We see in fact fugitives to the legal requests of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of the Interior, the Minister of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. When informed of the serious problems in the matter of clerical pedophilia by a parliamentary deliberation requested by Rete L’ABUSO and filed by the deputy Matthew Mantero 27-11-2017, to date, this is still unanswered and censored by all national newspapers, except the weekly LEFT and some other small newspaper.
Also in a second case, the President of the Republic, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Presidency of the 12th Social Affairs Commission, were reached by a warning presented by an Advocate of Rete L’ABUSO, Mario Caligiuri, and once again this was censured by the Italian press.
Rete L’ABUSO was inspired by The UN Committee on the Protection of the Child to proceed with reference to the 2014 recommendations. However, in the meeting of 5 June 2018 at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of Geneva, the President of the Rete L’ABUSO, Francesco Zanardi announced that he started more investigations into pedophilia in Italy, which is actually not allowed on Italian soil because the Holy See commits the same violations disputed. Also this news as in the previous ones, was silenced by the Italian press.
The criminal choices of the various governments that followed in Italy have produced an ideal environment for pedophiles and I am not referring only to the clergy. These include the farlocca introduction of the pedophile certificate (contest contained in the parliamentary question) that, to relieve the clergy from the exhibition itself, paradoxically indicates to the pedophiles the hunting ground, for example voluntary service, where people are always the most at risk.
Other omissions of the Italian Government are found in the application of the Lanzarote Convention which in Italy, rather than strengthening constitutional guarantees, in the canonical rite it allows the violation to the detriment of the victim and to the advantage of the priest.
There are other serious shortcomings of the Italian government, for example the creation of consultants for victims of sexual violence introduced by the European standards. These consultants that should have been managed by the national health, in reality have never been realized and the suspicion is that this happened precisely to avoid that in Italy. We could quantify the phenomenon and the consultors in fact could have provided very precise data, for example, how many victims there are of sexual violence, and determine which of those are caused by pedophilia and how many of those were abused by priests. Unfortunately, the only reliable and perceptive data in our country is what Rete L’ABUSO has provided and it speaks of almost 300 priests involved only in the last 15 years.
Always the European rules foresaw that in Italy what was created was a database not only useful for prevention, but also to file serial abusers. In 2006, following ratification, a fund was set up to create the database, but to date there is not as yet a database and especially in the violence against children, this lack means that there is not a minimum of protection and prevention.
The only body established in our country is the Observatory for the fight against pedophilia and child pornography, established on 25 July 2007, to date, repeatedly consulted, it has not been able to provide any useful data.
The observatory, left without appointments for a long period, was recomposed on September 12, 2016 by the then minister with proxy for equal opportunities Maria Elena Boschi who a few days later, unobservant to the D.M. which regulates it, with an additional decree, removes one of the councilors, Michele Palma, who is in charge of equal opportunities and replaces her inexplicably and without any pro, with a priest, Don Fortunato di Noto.
The links referred to the Observatory and the respective documentation are no longer available on the Ministry website at the original links.
EXPLOSIVE MIXTURE
In a democratic state sovereignty belongs to the people, but how do the people practice it?
First of all, the people acquire the awareness of the problem through the press that does not by chance have the privileges to protect itself enshrined in the Italian Constitution, such as confidentiality on the source of the news.
For this reason we are very angry with the Italian press that by censoring the problems it is not only responsible for preventing citizens the awareness of a problem but the possibility that people could protect themselves and demand that the Government intervene. Without an alarm on a problem, that problem does not exist and if a problem does not exist it is not addressed.
Remaining in the theme of pedophile priests and the protection of minors, Italy is facing a serious problem. On the one hand the Holy See, which promises provisions that conceptually can never be in favor of the victims since the church does not consider pedophilia a crime against the person but a sin against morality. Another basic problem is the 1962 directive known as Crimen Sollicitationis, reaffirmed in 2002 by the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the then secretary Tarcisio Bertone. It is a directive still in force, which in fact, beyond the proclamations of Bergoglio, is brought up on internal abuse cases.
And here we must make an important reflection that inevitably leads us to understand that the church does not want to intervene seriously on the phenomenon but tries to circumvent it giving the public the false impression of taking action, avoiding taking responsibility for victims and tribunals.
Have you ever asked yourself the question, who is in charge of managing the sexual abuse cases in the Catholic world?
Let me explain better, if a lawyer sexually abuses a minor, it is not that the lawyers’ order institutes a special court to try it, the jurisdiction is of the magistracy, of the justice of the country in which the crime was committed. So why in the case of priests should the competence be of the Holy See? The Holy See has, if it deems it appropriate, competence at most on the moral question, the fact that it persists in wanting to manage these cases internally is attributable to a single reason, that of not responding to the victims and the law, with the promise that “we will be more careful”.
Just think if Bergoglio instead of praying louder and louder not to hear the cries of the victims, he ordered his bishops, instead of handling cases internally, to denounce them to the judiciary. In a few months he would have solved the problem by guaranteeing the correct prevention for minors who attend parishes all over the world.
The criminal and complicit inertia of the government is the detonator of this explosive mixture to the detriment of the psychophysical health of their citizens. They have preferred to betray the state, a petticoat by priests.
Omissive conduct of the duty to protect minors from abuses in the clergy, violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, violation of the Lanzarote Convention in addition to the most elementary non-observances directly related to the Italian Constitution. These are some of the accusations that the President of the Rete L’ABUSO, Francesco Zanardi, through the lawyer of the Association, Avv. Mario Caligiuri of the forum of Rome, has collected in a warning sent today to the Italian Government.
Among the recipients of suspected epigraphs – and according to the law that regulates the relations between citizens and institutions obliged to respond within 30 days – there is not only the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, but also the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child , the 12th Social Affairs Commission, the National Authority for Children and Adolescence, the Presidency of the European Parliament and Unicef, National Authority for Childhood and Adolescence.
Also aware of the warning is the President of the Italian Republic (Guarantor of the Constitution), the INTERREGIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH (UNICRI) ON CRIMINALITY AND JUSTICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS, the INNOCENTI RESEARCH CENTER.
These are serious violations of the law in facts well documented in recent years by the Association Rete L’ABUSO, committed by the Holy See on Italian soil that would also see the second paragraph of Article. 40 c.p. dozens of omissions that have made the Italian Institutions, with their inertia, to allow the perpetration of crimes to the detriment of / the weakest citizens, the minors also forcing the victims who have become adults, to be denied the most basic constitutional rights, adding to this also the violation of the rights of what we know as the Charter of Human Rights.
Among the weighty accusations made in the 20 pages of warning, we also find the violations of the Lanzarote Convention, on the basis of which the Italian Government should strictly prohibit and above all before the conduct of a civil trial, those that we know as canonical processes and that are basis of the so-called “zero tolerance” campaign desired by Pope Francis.
The lawyer Caligiuri explains that “In this way, an unreasonable imbalance in favor of the alleged abuser is generated by another court, in advance of the celebration of the ordinary rite”.
“Not only in the ecclesiastical courtroom is the assistance of the defender of those who have reported the abuse, but above all the psychological support of technicians with proven experience legitimated to work for the victim, a person who has suffered emotional upheaval, does not incur in the creation of false memories. Until disregarding the provisions for the care and support of victims from the Lanzarote Convention “.
“Thinking of the cross-examination, the most disturbing fact emerges from the side of constitutional guarantees.
The defense of a priest, already charged for abuses by the Vatican, has the advantage of acquiring before the eventual Italian trial the narrative re-enactment that the victim will give of the historical fact, the weak points on which to tread the hand, the characterial peculiarities, and his emotional reality “.
With this information you have the possibility to make him fall into contradiction. «It is no coincidence that the reciprocal study of the adversary is a fact that lawyers take great care in the trials – confirms the lawyer -. We are therefore in the presence of an unequal treatment in favor of Catholic priests than any other Italian citizen “.
An aspect that for years the Italian Association of survivors of the sexual abuse of the clergy Rete L’ABUSO, denounces but instead, still today is improperly publicized by the media as being decisive for the victims, which unfortunately, they realize the contrary only when it is too late.
Among other important points, the immobility of the Italian Government, which unlike the others, in these years of awareness of the problem, not only has not yet begun, as in other countries, a commission of inquiry that quantifies the extent of the phenomenon, but even has not yet scheduled any provision in this regard, passively assisting what you give the numbers, we could easily define a mass of minor citizens.
The only initiative launched in Parliament until now is that much wanted by the Association Rete L’ABUSO, which has found the support of deputy Matteo Mantero, thanks to which – even if passed under the silence of the media – last November 27 , has filed the first Parliamentary Question with a specific written response on the danger of pedophile priests, which are also contested by the recent regulations introduced by the so-called anti-pedophilia certificate, which tragically exonerates all categories that are increasingly at risk, the world of volunteering that sees not only sports coaches, scouts, etc. but also the whole category of priests.
We await a full reply within the 30-day deadline, after which, in default, we do not exclude asking the Public Prosecutor’s Office for an assessment of the existence of any hypotheses of crime that can be inferred from the conduct conducted within the administration of the State, as ecclesiastics in the areas of social life frequented.
