Italy’s Jericho – Vatican City
In the old testament there is the story of the city of Jericho, the walls of which succumbed to the trumpets and cries of the Children of Israel. Now it is a new, grown up, group of children who are sounding trumpets, and the walls of the city which may succumb to resounding claims of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church belong to the Vatican.
To date, the Vatican has had to defend itself from sexual abuse claims arising in Canada, Ireland, and the United States, as well as more recently, Germany. Furthermore, this week, revelations from a Norwegian clergyman that he abused a minor have continued to rock the Roman Catholic establishment, which, as most will know, has its seat in central Rome.
Although it is somewhat difficult to believe at times, the Vatican City is a country in its own right, but this does not stop all the cardinals and co from attempting to influence the politics and society in Italy. And this is despite the fact that, officially anyway, there is no state religion in Italy. Some Italians do consider that the Vatican exerts an undue level of influence on Italy, and such people would not be overly sorry to see such influence reduced considerably, or, indeed, completely eliminated.
Some of Italy’s politicians would be rather happy if the Vatican’s propensity for commenting on goings on in Italy could be reduced to zero, too. On the 1st April, Italian newspaper and Berlusconi mouthpiece, Il Giornale ran a front page headline with the title: Paedophile Priests: Alarm in Milan (article in Italian).
In the article, a Milan judge, Pietro Forno, stated that in all the years he has spent investigating cases of sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic church has not once reported a case to the Italian authorities. Under Italian law, the Roman Catholic church is not obliged to report such crimes, although if it had, it may have been taken as a sign of good faith on the part of the church.
The sexual abuse scandal is moving closer to home, and the trumpets are blowing ever louder. Even if he cries of victims in Italy appear to have been muffled by Vatican authorities, it seems to be only a matter of time before the sexual abuse scandal hits.





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