‘SHAMEFUL’

Wafer Thin Report on Italian Clerical Abuse Angers Victims

The report was supposed to cover the last 20 years. It only covered the last two.

The highly anticipated report on Italian clerical sexual abuse has shown that “only” 89 people had been abused by 68 clerics in the last two years–a figure that victims say is woefully misleading. The report, commissioned by the Italian Bishops, tapped data from listening centers in dioceses across the country, and was supposed to reach back to 2000, according to promises made when the report was ordered. But instead, the 41-page report only encompasses 2020-21, and is short on detail, according to Francesco Zanardi, a victim who runs Rete l’Abuso, which highlights reports of abuse in a daily newsletter. “This is absolutely unsatisfactory and shameful,” he said in a statement Thursday. “It was already shameful that the (second study) would cover only cases from 2000 onward.” Zanardi’s alleged abuse happened before 2000, so will not be included in the report. The bishops group did not say if or when the report on the previous 18 years would be released.