Archbishop condemns alleged abuse but defends the Church

The Archbishop, Mgr Joseph Mercieca yesterday condemned the alleged abuse of boys by members of religious orders in institutes run by the Church.

Speaking in Sliema during the celebration of the feast of Christ the King, Mgr Mercieca said there might be people who were celebrating the feast only half-heartedly.

These people, he said, felt that the alleged sexual abuse of minors by religious in homes for boys over the years had rocked the Church in Malta.

There were those, Mgr Mercieca added, who were scandalised on hearing the word Church, and there were also those who argued that the Church was pushing people away from God or their faith.

Sexual abuse of children caused great hardship and grievous spiritual ill to the victims. It could also cast a bad light on the credibility of the Church. Such abuse should be condemned strongly and clearly, said the Archbishop.

Members of the Church who committed abuse as ugly as this shouldered the burdens of the ill they caused their victims, the scandal caused by their behaviour and of the damage caused to the Church and its commitment to spread the Gospel.

Christ the King, Mgr Mercieca said, always assisted His Church and strengthened it so that it could triumph, with love and patience, over its internal and external burdens and difficulties.

Although it was a historic reality, it was men who made up and managed the Church, and there were sinners within it. However, the Church was and remained holy, because its sins, no matter how grievous, did not weaken or destroy its holiness.

The Church could never be a sinner. However, because of the sins and shortcomings of its children, the Church could seem, without actually being so, a sinner disloyal to the Gospel and a counter witness to its leader, Jesus Christ.

Those who were scandalised by the sins of people of the Church were looking at the institution from a human point of view. On the other hand, those who looked at it from the point of view of the faithful would realise that the Church was really the mediator for the salvation and holiness of the people of God. It was in Church and through the Church that Christians obtained salvation.

Mgr Mercieca said the Catholic Church survived situations which should have destroyed it. The first three centuries were a time of persecution aimed at destroying the Christian religion.

The Church also experienced internal weaknesses because of the worldly, sometimes even scandalous behaviour of many lay people as well as of some of its clergy and other dignitaries.

But in spite of its weaknesses and persecutions, it remained strong and beautiful to this very day.

The Archbishop said it was extraordinary how the Church could always regain ground, grow and strengthen in spite of its dark and tragic moments.