Karl Schembri urges Church to confront abuse cover-ups as Curia hosts safeguarding conference

Author and former MaltaToday editor Karl Schembri has called on the Church to confront its historical role in silencing victims and to listen to survivor’s voices which were absent in the first Church-led Safeguarding Conference.

Schembri’s newly published novel Eħlisna mid-Deni (Deliver Us from Evil) confronts the legacy of clerical abuse through a fictionalised reckoning inspired by his own family tragedy.

He argued that any meaningful commitment to child protection must begin with an unflinching admission of the institution’s historic role in shielding abusive priests. He insisted that institutional apologies remain hollow unless accompanied by “brutal forensic detail” about past wrongdoing.

“The Church needs to admit its case history of obstructing justice, protecting paedophile priests and actively enabling them to continue with their predatory behaviour,” he wrote. He added that the institution must publicly acknowledge how it humiliated and silenced victims, warning that calls for safeguarding ring “too abstract” when the extent of past cover-ups remains hidden.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Mark Pellicano, who heads Safeguarding for the Archdiocese of Malta, acknowledged these historical responsibilities, insisting that the whole gist of the conference, as expressed by the various speakers, was that “silence has corrupted the Church”.

He also said that the Church understood that before clear guidelines came into place obliging the Church to report abuse directly to the police, many injustices were inflicted.

“Our task is to throw light on what was previously buried under the carpet.”

Schembri’s post also criticised the conference structure, noting the absence of survivors’ voices. “I would expect a conference on safeguarding to put victims at the centre. Here we’re only hearing a professional and three priests,” he said, contrasting lived experience with institutional messaging.

Pellicano acknowledged the absence of survivors’ voices in the conference and noted the difficulty of having abuse victims speak in public in a close-knit community like Malta.

But he made it clear that the Church is always ready to hear and offer a platform to abuse victims. 

The conference, titled A Shared Mission, was presented by Church authorities as part of a renewed effort toward survivor-centred protection.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna acknowledged that abuse “happens also within our ranks,” calling for humility and courage in confronting the truth. Abuse by clergy, he noted, carries a distinct spiritual dimension, inflicting psychological harm while also shattering victims’ faith and sense of safety within the Church.

Keynote speaker Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, harked on the need for transparency, arguing that “true protection begins when we are truly willing to listen to survivors, families, and those in positions of responsibility. Healing begins with that openness.”

During the conference, Mark Pellicano called for the creation of a national safeguarding policy framework, including mandatory Safeguarding Commissions for various sectors. Pellicano warned that the absence of legal mechanisms to regulate information-sharing currently allows individuals barred from Church environments to continue working with other organisations, exposing a structural gap well beyond ecclesiastical authority.

When contacted by MaltaToday, Karl Schembri welcomed the proposal made by Pellicino to to impose child safeguarding measures across all entities but reiterated the call for a wider process that puts the Church’s institutional role in silencing victims and protecting abusers under the spotlight. 

“Apart from addressing individual injustices through positive changes being made by the commission, we  need to address the structural and historical injustice” Schembri told MaltaToday.

Schembri’s intervention carries particular resonance given the subject of his novel, which fictionalises the lifelong trauma inflicted on his father after sexual abuse by a priest—abuse that was never believed, investigated or addressed.

In the book, a man kidnaps a revered elderly priest and forces him to listen to the story of a life scarred by childhood violation. The narrative mirrors Schembri’s own family history: his father’s descent into severe mental illness, the unacknowledged abuse that preceded it, and the tragic murder of Schembri’s mother during a psychotic episode.

Passages from his father’s psychiatric report are reproduced verbatim in the novel, anchoring its fiction in harrowing reality.

“For many years, justice was never done,” Schembri said in a recent interview, describing how the Church historically reassigned abusive priests—sometimes into roles granting them access to children—to suppress scandal.

Against this backdrop, Schembri’s demand is clear: safeguarding efforts cannot be credible in the absence of a formal process to establish the institutional failures of the Church. As Church authorities call for shared responsibility, he calls for shared accountability and historical justice.

Eħlisna mid-Deni was launched this week at the Malta Book Festival and is available in bookshops.