And what is this your Grace?

Pull the RT's plug

Former Judge Victor Caruana Columbo, the chairman of the Curia's Response Team, has spent the last 8 years trying to decide whether Lawrence Grech and his fellow orphans were sexually abused at St Joseph Home. He would still be scratching his head and twiddling his thumbs had media pressure not led the Vatican itself to dive in to sort out the mess.

When Mons Carmel Scicluna, the Pope's delegate on such matters, came to Malta to effectively take over the case, he did more on the case in 8 days than Caruana Colombo did in 8 years.
 
Now we have another piece of information to confirm that the Response Team is one sick joke. From this week's court sentence which sent Charles Pulis and Godwin Scerri to jail for a total of 11 years, it transpires that the former had already been brought in front of the Response Team on the same case before. Victor Caruana Colombo not only had found him innocent but - and I gag as I write this - told him to "continue taking care of the children like an honest parent".

In sharp contrast, Magistrate Saviour Demicoli, found Pulis's behaviour "highly disgusting", adding that "[in] circumstances where Carmelo Pulis allows minors in his room at about 11.45 p.m., while wearing a vest and boxer shorts, with a boy lying down on him and ending up with an erection while saying that he never had homosexual tendencies and was allergic to homosexuals, to say the least, is contradictory."

Archbishop Pawl Cremona and his Curia should recognise that they are at a crossroads. Having Caruana Colombo resign quietly now will not do the trick. They have to understand that dealing with priests who sexually abuse teenagers is not their business. It is the business of the police and magistrates. Sex abusers who wear a dog collar should be tried in the same room as those who don't: a court of law. The Response Team has got to go and it has to go now.

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