418 “pedophile priests” detected in Italy
The Network of Victims of Abuse (Rete L’Abuso), one of the leading associations in the fight against sexual abuse of the Catholic Church in the country, and the non-governmental organizations called ECA Global (Let’s End the Abuse of Priests) operating worldwide, announced its first joint report based on victims of sexual harassment in churches in Italy.
It was claimed that the report, which was prepared in light of data collected by the National Network of Victims of Abuse and ECA over the past 13 years, aims to reveal the extent of the problem of “pedophile priests” in Italy instead of providing any number
There are a total of 418 pedophile priests across the country, including those who were anonymously denounced, denounced and convicted, by region of the Italian Catholic Church. Among these, the northern Lombardy region ranks first with 69 pedophile priests.
Also included in the report was that only 164 of the 418 priests in question had completed sentences in the last 13 years.
The Network of Victims of Abuse argued that the investigations on this issue were generally low level and that the Italian judiciary was not involved and did not follow up on the matter.
Francesco Zanardi, Head of the Network of Victims of Abuse, stated in the online press conference that the report will also be sent to the judicial authorities and law enforcement, with the names of the people linked to the aforementioned events.
REPORT 2022 FROZEN BLOOD
On the other hand, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), the highest-level institution of the Catholic Church in Italy, announced its first report on cases of sexual abuse within the church in 2022. In the report, released in November 2022, it was reported that 89 minors and vulnerable people were victims of sexual abuse in the period 2020-2021.
Francesco Zanardi, for his part, described this CEI report as “very limited in scope and pure propaganda.”
Many non-governmental organizations sensitive to this issue, especially the Network of Victims of Abuse in Italy, argue that the country cannot face this problem. (AA)