Archbishop Scicluna to steer Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse

Malta’s Archbishop Charles Scicluna will form part of a high-powered steering committee to oversee a Vatican summit in February on the protection of minors in the church.

The committee is composed of two cardinals, Blase Cupich (Chicago) and Oswald Gracias (Bombay, India), and two of the church’s experts in the field: Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Malta), and Fr Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit and president of the Centre for Child Protection and Director and professor of psychology at the Gregorian University in Rome, who will serve as coordinator.

In an interview to the American Jesuits’ magazine America, Archbishop Scicluna, whom Pope Francis recently appointed as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and who is also the president of its tribunal for appeals, said the summit will be a the first ever synodal meeting on the sexual abuse of minors of the church.

The event is significant because it brings together the presidents of over 100 bishops conferences from around the world, and the heads of all the Eastern-rite Catholic churches.

The synod is expected to hold plenary sessions, prayer groups, discussions with stakeholders, and a “penitential liturgy” where victims will be listened to.

Scicluna said this was “a very important sign of what we call in technical terms ‘affective collegiality,’ which means the bringing together of bishops from around the world with the Holy Father to discuss important issues and to get them to be on the same page with the Holy Father.”

Scicluna said Pope Francis “realises that this issue” – addressing sexual abuse by clergy in the church – “has to be top on the church’s agenda.”

“This is a global issue which the church would want to approach with a united front, with respect for the different cultures but with a united resolve and with people being on the same page on it.”

The four-day summit will aim getting bishops to understand that the phenomenon of clerical sex abuse is not only a crime but “a very grave symptom of something deeper, which is actually a crisis in the way we approach ministry,” Scicluna said. “Some call it clericalism, others call it a perversion of the ministry.”

Scicluna, who led countless investigations into clerical sex abuse, said bishops had to “move away from panic-driven policies that put the good name of the institution above all other considerations” and “move forward from any temptation to cover up any crimes. It is only the truth will set us free.”