Omissive conduct of the duty to protect minors from abuses in the clergy, violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, violation of the Lanzarote Convention in addition to the most elementary non-observances directly related to the Italian Constitution. These are some of the accusations that the President of the Rete L’ABUSO, Francesco Zanardi, through the lawyer of the Association, Avv. Mario Caligiuri of the forum of Rome, has collected in a warning sent today to the Italian Government.
Among the recipients of suspected epigraphs – and according to the law that regulates the relations between citizens and institutions obliged to respond within 30 days – there is not only the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, but also the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child , the 12th Social Affairs Commission, the National Authority for Children and Adolescence, the Presidency of the European Parliament and Unicef, National Authority for Childhood and Adolescence.
Also aware of the warning is the President of the Italian Republic (Guarantor of the Constitution), the INTERREGIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH (UNICRI) ON CRIMINALITY AND JUSTICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS, the INNOCENTI RESEARCH CENTER.
These are serious violations of the law in facts well documented in recent years by the Association Rete L’ABUSO, committed by the Holy See on Italian soil that would also see the second paragraph of Article. 40 c.p. dozens of omissions that have made the Italian Institutions, with their inertia, to allow the perpetration of crimes to the detriment of / the weakest citizens, the minors also forcing the victims who have become adults, to be denied the most basic constitutional rights, adding to this also the violation of the rights of what we know as the Charter of Human Rights.
Among the weighty accusations made in the 20 pages of warning, we also find the violations of the Lanzarote Convention, on the basis of which the Italian Government should strictly prohibit and above all before the conduct of a civil trial, those that we know as canonical processes and that are basis of the so-called “zero tolerance” campaign desired by Pope Francis.
The lawyer Caligiuri explains that “In this way, an unreasonable imbalance in favor of the alleged abuser is generated by another court, in advance of the celebration of the ordinary rite”.
“Not only in the ecclesiastical courtroom is the assistance of the defender of those who have reported the abuse, but above all the psychological support of technicians with proven experience legitimated to work for the victim, a person who has suffered emotional upheaval, does not incur in the creation of false memories. Until disregarding the provisions for the care and support of victims from the Lanzarote Convention “.
“Thinking of the cross-examination, the most disturbing fact emerges from the side of constitutional guarantees.
The defense of a priest, already charged for abuses by the Vatican, has the advantage of acquiring before the eventual Italian trial the narrative re-enactment that the victim will give of the historical fact, the weak points on which to tread the hand, the characterial peculiarities, and his emotional reality “.
With this information you have the possibility to make him fall into contradiction. «It is no coincidence that the reciprocal study of the adversary is a fact that lawyers take great care in the trials – confirms the lawyer -. We are therefore in the presence of an unequal treatment in favor of Catholic priests than any other Italian citizen “.
An aspect that for years the Italian Association of survivors of the sexual abuse of the clergy Rete L’ABUSO, denounces but instead, still today is improperly publicized by the media as being decisive for the victims, which unfortunately, they realize the contrary only when it is too late.
Among other important points, the immobility of the Italian Government, which unlike the others, in these years of awareness of the problem, not only has not yet begun, as in other countries, a commission of inquiry that quantifies the extent of the phenomenon, but even has not yet scheduled any provision in this regard, passively assisting what you give the numbers, we could easily define a mass of minor citizens.
The only initiative launched in Parliament until now is that much wanted by the Association Rete L’ABUSO, which has found the support of deputy Matteo Mantero, thanks to which – even if passed under the silence of the media – last November 27 , has filed the first Parliamentary Question with a specific written response on the danger of pedophile priests, which are also contested by the recent regulations introduced by the so-called anti-pedophilia certificate, which tragically exonerates all categories that are increasingly at risk, the world of volunteering that sees not only sports coaches, scouts, etc. but also the whole category of priests.
We await a full reply within the 30-day deadline, after which, in default, we do not exclude asking the Public Prosecutor’s Office for an assessment of the existence of any hypotheses of crime that can be inferred from the conduct conducted within the administration of the State, as ecclesiastics in the areas of social life frequented.
Francesco Zanardi
