Abuse Loosens Church’s Culture of Silence in Italy

[Liberal_in_LA]

Abuse Loosens Church’s Culture of Silence in Italy

ROME — One afternoon last month, a rare thing happened in Rome’s main courthouse: for perhaps the first time ever, an Italian bishop took the witness stand in the case of a priest accused of the sexual abuse of children.

Soon after, another rare thing happened. The leader of the Italian bishops’ conference acknowledged at a news conference that it was “possible” that bishops in Italy had covered up abuse, while his deputy said that in the past decade, 100 Italian priests had faced church trials in connection with the sexual abuse of minors.

The remarks were the first time the bishops’ conference had ever publicly quantified the number of Italian cases — and one of the few where it answered reporters’ questions on the matter.

In Italy, the “ombra del cupolone,” or shadow of the dome of St. Peter’s, reaches far, and the church has long maintained a forceful grip on public life, if not in Italians’ private lives. But slowly, the sexual abuse crisis that has stirred up Europe in recent months has begun to take root in the Vatican’s backyard.

While Italy still falls short on transparency in both state and church, observers say a new chapter may be beginning in which the once taboo topic of sexual abuse by priests is slowly entering the national conversation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/world/europe/27vatican.html?hp