Italians dare to come out after Irish gave the good example.

international | crime and justice | news report Thursday March 25, 2010 13:32 by institutional

s*xual abuse by clergy in Italy was never openly discussed.

VERONA It happened night after night. Sometimes in the bedroom of the priest, sometimes in the bathroom, sometimes even in the confessional. Alessandro Vantini (now 59) was a deaf boy at a Catholic school, priests abused him so often that it felt "like I was dead".
This year Vantini and dozens of other former students did something very unusual for Italians: They went out with the accusation that they were forced to have s*x with priests. [*due to the following:There were spamwords detected in the content. Post rejected.]

In Italy, where the church is still heavily respected by the public, s*xual abuse by clergy was surrounded by silence. But now in "the backyard of the Vatican" a movement is exposing this abuse.
The Associated Press (AP) inventory has gathered 73 cases of alleged s*xual abuse by priests, involving more than 235 victims. The information comes from media reports, websites and blogs of victims. In almost all cases the victims came out in the last seven years - after the publicity over a scandal involving priests in the U.S. and Ireland - emerged.
The number of cases in Italy is limited compared to the hundreds of lawsuits in the U.S. and Ireland conducted. In Italy the Catholic Church has so far payd only a few hundred thousand euros compensation to victims. In the U.S. and Ireland the figures are much higher, respectively 1.6 billion and 1 billion euros.
But in a country where a decade ago, reports of abuse by clergy was still virtually unknown, these are remarkable figures. Possibly the reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg.
A pattern emerges where in the U.S. and Irish scandals and now aslo in Italy clergy abuse mainly poor, addicted or mentally or physically disabled young people who are entrusted to their care. The difficulty to communicate deaf people will make it easy to enforce silence of victims.
Few in Italy dared to criticize the church. We do not talk freely about s*x, let alone priests having s*x with children.
67 ex-pupils of the Deaf Institute in Verona Provolo Antonio broke the silence and signed a declaration stating that s*xual abuse, child abuse and corporal punishment in this school were fife from the 50's onwards.
Alessandro Vantini spoke after a long silence: "How could I tell my dad that a priest had had s*x with me? You could not tell your parents, because the priests would hit you. "
Vantini says he suffers from anxiety since he was raped by a priest. He mentions two priests and two lay brothers, but does not want their names published for fear of legal action - three of these men are still alive.
"Until my 30's I suffered from depression," says Vantini, who visited the deaf institute of 6 until age 19. "My wife said it was good if I could talk about, for to lose this burden on my shoulders."
Gianni Bisoli (60), a former schoolmate of Vantini, accused priests and lay brothers that they penetrated him, and forced him to have oral s*x and perform masturbation. The now deceased bishop of Verona, Giuseppe Carraro, who is eligible for beatification, might have abused him several times.
Bisoli claims to remember how he was brought to the bishop. "The bishop began to touch me. I did not want to, but he went on. "He says that the bishop was trying to penetrate with a banana and that he once did with his finger. To calm him down, he received money for candy or ice cream.
The current Bishop of Verona, Giuseppe Zenti, accused the former students of Provolo initially that they had made false statements. But after one of the accused priests actually admitted that he had sexual relationships with pupils, Zenti commissioned an internal investigation.
But in the investigation the victims are not heard and statements are only taken from members of the congregation and other school personnel. Some cases of abuse are admitted, but that is only a fraction of all allegations. Two priests and a lay brother in training are dismissed. Bishop Carraro is exonerated.
A global network needs to be established between victims of abuse in institutions. Even if they are heavily compensated victims should not stay silent, but they should pave the way so others will not be victimised.