Victor, what happened?

Former Judge Victor Caruana Colombo presides over the Curia's Response Team. When the now convicted sex abuser Charles Pulis was originally hauled in front of him, Caruana Colombo pronounced him innocent. Yet when he was tried by the court for the same abuse, he was found guilty and sent to jail.



Let us clear something up at the start. Charles Pulis testified under oath in court that when the Response Team had got him off the hook, the former judge gave him a benediction of sorts, telling him to "continue taking care of children like an honest parent". Now Caruana Colombo has denied saying anything of the sort.

I have absolutely no doubt that it is the sex abuser who lied in court, not the former judge today. Victor Caruana Colombo is a man of iron-clad integrity of the old school, with a stellar career on and off the bench. His word might be frustratingly slow in coming, but when it does there are none truer.

Ironically, however, it is precisely the absolute faith I have in him that prevents me from sorting out this mystery. How could he have found sex abuser Pulis innocent when he evidently was not? Worse still, his job was not even to determine guilt or innocence but to establish whether there were sufficient grounds for the case to proceed to the Vatican for a verdict.

I cannot believe that Victor Caruana Colombo would allow anything, including his devout Catholicism and loyalty to the church, to prevent him from being a just man. So I honestly do not understand what happened. Given that the Response Team does not operate as an open court and because Caruana Colombo is prevented by canon law from speaking in public about the proceedings, we shall never know why he arrived at the wrong decision.

This is yet another reason why the Response Team should be consigned to the ash heap of history. Not only has it proved to be hopelessly inadequate for prosecuting alleged sexual abuse by members of the clergy. It also taints the reputation of the upright and honest man who has been running it.