Vatican's Public Prosecutor Named Archbishop of Malta
Bishop Charles Scicluna is to be named Archbishop of Malta on Friday. Bishop Scicluna was Cardinal Ratzinger's right hand man at the CDF. The Archbishop of Malta has recently resigned on grounds of ill health and Bishop Scicluna will become the new Archbishop.
He served from 2002 to 2012 as Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – that is, as the Vatican's public prosecutor – personally handling the sex abuses crises of 2002 and 2010 and carrying forward the ‘zero tolerance’ line wanted by St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI to tackle the issue. His job was to investigate what are known as delicta graviora; i.e., the crimes which the Catholic Church considers as being the most serious of all: crimes against the Eucharist and against the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance, and crimes against the sixth Commandment ("thou shall not commit impure acts") committed by a cleric against a person under the age of eighteen.
Bishop (then Mgr Scicluna) had the reputation of scrupulously carrying out the tasks entrusted to him without deferring to anyone whilst in this role.
Bishop (then Mgr Scicluna) had the reputation of scrupulously carrying out the tasks entrusted to him without deferring to anyone whilst in this role.
Bishop Scicluna knows where the bodies are buried.
He knows who the guilty men were - and what club they belong
to.
He was moved by Pope Benedict XVI to Malta shortly before the Holy Father announced he was standing down from the Pontificate. One has to wonder if this was in fact an effort to protect Bishop Scicluna from malign
members of the Curia?
This is indeed good news. We must pray the red hat comes his way sooner rather than later!
ReplyDeleteThe perfect man for the job ... :-)
ReplyDeleteGood news indeed - and hot on the heels of reports that Robert Cardinal Sarah has denounced any separation of the Magisterium from pastoral practice as 'a form of heresy, a dangerous schizophrenic pathology'.
ReplyDeleteIf he know where bodies are buried, we can see why he has been exiled to this minor former British colony. I suspect the above post harks to the usual conspiracy nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but detect a rather derogatory tone in your post there Robert!
DeleteI would argue that Malta is far from a place of exile, it is a key territory has been for many years as it occupies a position of particular strategic importance. This has been demonstrated time and again over the centuries, as geo-political struggle has centred on the archipelago. Just look up The Great Siege of Malta, or the islands' role in WW II for instance.
Malta punches far above its weight in Catholic terms as well, the Maltese Church has long been a missionary Church, and Maltese religious and priests are active all over the globe. According to a poll held in 2005, 95% of respondents from Malta said that "they believe there is a God". This was the highest in the EU-25 (the EU-25 average was 76%). Vatican data for 2006 shows that 93.89% of the Maltese population is Roman Catholic, making the nation one of the most Catholic countries in the world.
With such a prominent Catholic presence on the front-line with Islam, I would say a strong leader is very relevant and important for the whole Church.