Archbishop Paul Cremona said today that both the Church and Society should examine how the problem of paedophilia could be reduced and if possible eliminated.

Speaking on the TVM programme Bongu, Mgr Cremona referred to his meeting yesterday with a number of men who allege they have been victims of child abuse by the clergy. He said these men did well to tell the people what had happened and he did not blame them for going to the media.

For the church, such cases were regretful and humiliating, because people should have confidence in priests.

When asked, Mgr Cremona regretted that sections of the international media were focusing on this issue and ignoring all the good which the Church and the priests did in society. Sections of the international media, instead of ‘informing' the people, were seeking to ‘form' the people against the church.

The members of the clergy who committed these abuses were sick, he said, but they were only a small percentage of the clergy - even though for the church, just one child abuse case was one too many.

It was important to have justice in such cases, Mgr Cremona said, but one should not forget the victims. This was not a problem which was restricted to the Church, and society, including the church, should examine how these victims could be helped and how this problem could be reduced or, if possible, removed.

Mgr Cremona pointed out how the Church in Malta had, since 1999, set up a Response Team to hear cases of child abuse, and said this had been supplemented by a second team. Both teams were headed by retired judges and were autonomous of the church. Cases were then referred to Rome for action.

Earlier in the programme, Lawrence Grech, one of the men who have alleged child abuse, referred to their meeting with the Archbishop yesterday and said he never expected the Archbishop to be so humble. Things could have been better had Mgr Cremona been in office in the 1990s, Mr Grech said.