Sex abuse victims ‘upset’ by Mgr Scicluna’s compensation stand

Maltese victims of clerical sex abuse have criticised new Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna for saying compensation should be paid to them by the priests who committed the abuse, not the Maltese Church. “He is too soft to penetrate the Maltese Curia,” said Lawrence Grech, the spokesman of the group of Maltese abuse victims seeking compensation. “We are upset because he had promised to help us,” he added. “I expected this to happen, because when you deal with the Maltese Curia, you always have to wait. He joined the Maltese Curia and he is now using their words.” He said the Church should be held responsible because it had ways of knowing about the abuse and took no action to stop it when one of the priests returned from Canada, amid headlines. “The Church is responsible so it should take responsibility. It cannot shrug things off.” Mr Grech, who together with other victims spent years seeking justice and compensation, also took Mgr Scicluna to task for saying that the victims were still part of the Church’s flock. “We are not. We were, but not anymore. The Church is our enemy now, because the State trusted the Church to take care of us but instead we were sexually and mentally...