Security around the Pope is to be stepped up for his visit to Malta after sex abuse victims on the island said they planned to protest at his failure to tackle the scandal rocking the Catholic Church.
The decision came after vandals defaced posters promoting the Pontiff's trip this weekend by adding an Adolf Hitler style moustache to his photograph and the word "paedophile".
As a teenager growing up in Germany Pope Benedict, then Josef Ratzinger, was conscripted into the Hitler Youth in the closing stages of the Second World War, an episode he has avoided talking about at great length.
Church failed to act on child sex abuse - report
Hundreds of Irish Catholic priests 'to be implicated in child abuse report'
'The Catholic church failed me. I despised myself and lost all confidence'
Vatican reveals secrets of worst sins
Educated Catholics have sown dissent and confusion in the Church, claims bishop
Embarrassed church chiefs on Malta said the action as simply "wanton vandalism'' and not representative of the island's majority population of which more than 90 per cent are Roman Catholic.
However, there have been a series of high level calls between security and Vatican officials in both Rome and the Maltese capital of La Valleta in recent days as the scandal over sex abuse by clergy has grown.
A Vatican source said: "There is a real fear that protests will be an issue during the visit by the Pope to Malta and as a result precautions are being taken. The itinerary is not being changed but there is concern and as a result an increase in vigilance.''
It comes after it was disclosed that the Pope, who was then Cardinal Ratzinger, resisted appeals to unfrock an American priest with a record of sexually molesting children. In a letter, written in 1985 and bearing his name, he said that any action against Fr Stephen Kiesle should take into account the "good of the universal Church" and the "detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly concerning the young age." Fr Kiesle was 38 at the time.
Malta, like Ireland, Germany and America has been hit by a series of sex scandals involving Roman Catholic clergy and on the island which was a former British colony there have been abuse claims against 45 priests.
Victims plan to protest when he lands at the island's main airport on Saturday afternoon and at various other events during the Pope's 36-hour trip, which is to celebrate St Paul being shipwrecked there 1950 years ago.
Many of the abuse cases in Malta are said to have taken place at the St Joseph Orphanage at Santa Venera and one victim Lawrence Grech, has written to the Pope dealing his horrific ordeal at the hands of priests.
He has asked for a meeting with the Pope and an apology but so far he has heard nothing, despite the Pope's spokesman last week saying that the Pope would be willing to meet abuse victims.
Mr Grech said he and other boys were abused by four priests, one of whom has fled to Italy, and that despite informing Maltese authorities nothing has been done.
He says that he and the other boys were abused and forced to dress in women's clothing while they were residents there in the 1980s and although hearings are taking place in a Maltese court they are behind close doors and proceeding painfully slowly.
Mr Grech said: "Not one priest has been convicted and not one has spent any time in jail. Protests are planned and will take place during the Pope's visit to Malta."
A Facebook site called "No to Pope Benedict XVI in Malta" has been set up and has attracted more than 1,000 members.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario