The clergy sexual abuse scandal is slowly gathering steam in Italy with increasing media coverage, criminal convictions and the launch Monday of an investigative podcast dedicated to a case that tangentially involved Pope Francis.
A Sicilian court last week convicted a priest of sexual violence and attempted sexual violence against three minors and sentenced him to 4 and a half years in prison. It also held his diocese, Piazza Armerina in Sicily, responsible for separate civil damages and legal fees, a major ruling given the influence the Catholic Church wields in all features of Italian society, particularly in small-town Sicily.
Piazza Armeria Bishop Rosario Gisana was recorded admitting to having covered up for the priest, the Rev. Giuseppe Rugolo. He was recorded saying he had covered up for one more priest who did far worse and describing Rugolo’s actions as mere “stupidities” of a young man.
Victim Antonio Messina told his story on the launch Monday of the podcast about his case, saying it was his duty to talk out after he said he was “betrayed” by his church.
“After the violence and abuse I suffered, there was one other abuse that I received from the bishop of the diocese of not being believed,” Messina said. “If this will open the doors (to others coming forward) … then bring it on.”
Italian investigative journalists Stefano Feltri, Giorgio Meletti and Federica Tourn launched the seven-episode podcast, using recordings that emerged throughout the closed-door trial. In one, recounted by Tourn, the bishop seemingly boasted about having Francis’ support because he had done Francis a favor.
Francis, who visited Gisana’s diocese during a 2018 day trip to Sicily, clearly is keen on the bishop. He said so publicly on the eve of prosecutors’ scheduled final arguments.
“This bishop is great. He was persecuted, calumnied but he’s been firm, at all times correct, an accurate man,” Francis said Nov. 6 during a Vatican audience with Gisana and pilgrims.
Italy’s Catholic Church, unique due to presence of the Vatican in its midst, has managed to avoid a significant public reckoning with its legacy of abuse and cover-up.
The scandal here has remained relatively low-key, unlike in other countries where the hierarchy has had to answer mounting public outrage, aggressive prosecutors and civil litigators and a plethora of support groups for victims and native media willing to inform their stories.
It seems the latter at the very least is slowly starting to vary.
The Enna, Sicily reporter for Italian news agency ANSA, Pierelisa Rizzo, who said she was sued for defamation for her coverage of the trial, said the “Pandora’s Box” of reporting on clergy abuse in Italy was now opened.
Just this weekend, national day by day La Repubblica published an expose of the plight of abused nuns.
Attorney Elianna Parasaliti, who represented Messina, welcomed the media attention, saying that she, Messina and the reporters covering the case were threatened, sued and in some cases followed by police throughout the trial.
“This attention for us was a type of protection, today I can say it clearly, because in these years we’ve got really feared for ourselves and our families,” she said. “The climate of hostility that we felt is something that I don’t consider has precedence.”
In an announcement last week after the decision, the Sicilian diocese pushed back on the media coverage of the trial and noted that the priest had been convicted of lesser charges in Messina’s case and that his former parish had been exonerated entirely of liability.
The diocese said it wasn’t liable consequently of Gisana’s actions or those of his predecessor, but merely since it was accountable for the actions of considered one of its priests.
Appeals are planned and in Italy, judgements aren’t considered final until all appeals are exhausted.
The church shelved the case internally on a technicality because Rugolo was a seminarian on the time the abuse began. The Vatican’s in-house laws on the time only called for canonical sanctions against priests who abuse children, not seminarians.
Attorney Parasaliti said she would seek to reopen the canonical case on the premise of the conviction from the Sicilian court.
