Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: OPP reopens case of priest who fled Canada while facing sex charges

http://www.vancouversun.com/story_print.html?id=2912116&sponsor=
WINDSOR, Ont. — The Ontario Provincial Police has reopened a case 
against a former Windsor, Ont.-area priest accused of sexual assaulting 
minors in Canada before moving to Malta where he faced similar charges a 
decade later.
"Allegations from the case recently came to light so it has been 
resurrected as a cold case," OPP spokeswoman Shawna Coulter said 
Thursday. "We are looking at any information we can get."
A Canadawide warrant for Rev. Godwin Scerri remains valid, and Coulter 
said the OPP would still like to extradite him to face sex-abuse charges 
here.
Vatican spokesmen, meanwhile, say the Pope is considering meeting this 
weekend in Malta with victims of sexual assault at the hands of three 
priests, including Scerri.
The OPP charged Scerri in June 1993 with sexual assault and gross 
indecency, stemming from complaints by a 22-year-old man. The 
complainant alleged the abuse occurred between 1983 and 1987 — starting 
when the victim was 12 years old — on Pelee Island and in Emeryville, 
where Scerri worked as a priest at St. William's Church.
Scerri never faced those allegations in court, however, since he had 
returned to his native Malta — where he was named spiritual director of 
a girls' secondary school in the city of Rabat, according to the Malta 
Today newspaper.
In October 2003, Scerri and two other members of the Missionary Society 
of St. Paul — Rev. Charles Pulis and Brother Joseph Bonnett — were 
charged with abusing and raping children at the St. Joseph Home in Santa 
Venera in Malta.
Ten men who claim to have been sexually abused by members of the clergy 
are following a court proceeding in Malta concerning Scerri, Pulis and 
Bonnet. The tribunal, which has gone on intermittently since 2003, is 
closed to the public and few details have emerged.
Maltese reporters can't even say whether Scerri, Pulis and Bonnet are in 
custody or remain free. The Malta diocese has said none of the accused 
priests remain in positions of authority.
The Malta diocese told the Windsor Star it will not comment on the 
situation.
The only alleged victim to publicly speak on the topic is angered that 
Scerri faced charges in Canada and simply moved to Malta where he 
allegedly continued his ways.
"The problem is he escaped from Canada but the bishop in Malta put him 
at an orphanage," Lawrence Grech, 37, said by telephone Thursday from Malta.
Grech said he remembers Scerri as a kind man. "He was friendly with 
kids. He had a nice character."
But Grech claims Scerri also had a dark side. Grech said he was abused 
by three priests at the St. Joseph orphanage, starting when he was 11 
years old. He said Scerri was not one of his abusers, though his best 
friend alleges he was abused by Scerri.
"The abuse was normal. It was common for us," said Grech, who spoke at a 
news conference in Malta this week, calling the seven-year court case 
against his alleged abusers too long and asking to meet with the Pope 
over the incidents. "In fact, we used to dress as women."
Grech said the abuse caused lasting pain.
"It hurt me," he said. "It hurt me spiritually, and inside my heart. I 
was an innocent boy, but my innocence ended early."
The case is receiving heightened attention since Pope Benedict XVI is 
scheduled to visit Malta on the weekend in a whirlwind 26-hour trip. 
Vatican spokesmen have been quoted as saying that the Pope has a "very 
tight schedule" in Malta and may not be able to meet the alleged 
victims, who argue that they would receive some closure by receiving an 
audience with the Pope.
Some 40,000 to 50,000 people are expected to flock to the Pope's Sunday 
mass in Malta, a Mediterranean country of 400,000 on an archipelago off 
the coast of southern Italy.
The visit comes as a worldwide scandal intensifies on the Roman Catholic 
Church, and in particular the Vatican, for allegedly covering up abuse 
by priests — and in some cases, reassigning offending clergy to 
positions of power over minors and other vulnerable people.

 audience with the Pope.
Potrebbe esserci un altro modo, cioè l'apostasia.