The Comboni Missionaries Lie Factory

There has been an article in the Liverpool Echo today about the abuse that we received at the hands of the Comboni Missionaries (ex Verona Fathers). See it here http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-man-breaks-silence-over-7999755

The Comboni Missionaries are still in denial about it. A spokesperson for them in the Echo said:-

“The 11 claims which have now been resolved were all settled on a purely commercial basis and with no admission of liability.”

I think that ordinary people will put two and two together as they did when Michael Jackson paid out the father of a child he abused $20m while saying that he didn’t actually abuse him.

She continued “Given the passage of almost half a century since the alleged abuse, and particularly the deaths of the two alleged abusers named in 10 of the claims, we will never know the truth of what happened at St Peter’s.”

Well, we all know exactly what happened at the Comboni Missionaries seminary in Mirfield. The stories told by the boys (now men) who were abused are compelling. Indeed the stories show a pattern of abuse in the opportunities used whether it was Fr John Pinkman bringing boys to his room to tell them the facts of life to get them to remove their clothes for further explanation or Fr Valmaggia’s using his role as Infirmarian to get the boys to take off their clothes as he needed to weigh them regularly.

One of the comboni Missionaries abusers is still alive and is wanted for questioning by the West Yorkshire Police who have stated that a crime has been committed. He is holed up at the mother house in Verona and our police are being told he is not well enough to extradite.

She continued “Considering the numbers of boys who were educated at St Peter’s, the Verona Fathers absolutely do not accept that claims from 12 individuals demonstrate a culture of abuse at the seminary. There are priests who are currently members of the Verona Fathers who were at St Peter’s in the 1960s and 1970s and who never witnessed or heard of any abuse.”

She must know that more than 12 boys claimed to be abused as she has the statements of other boys who were abused who did not want to be part of the case but who wanted to corroborate the stories of those taking action against the Comboni Missionaries. There are also other boys we could name who were abused but who want to forget about it and just get on with their lives.

I never talked about it when I was there, and neither did most others, but at the first reunion that I attended it turned out that the MAJORITY of those attending had been abused by Pinkman, Valmaggia or both. The Comboni Missionaries knew all about it. Some of the boys told people who are still alive, at the time.

Here’s a question that needs to be answered. If the Verona Fathers knew nothing about it why was Fr Valmaggia summarily dismissed on the very day that several boys told Fr Hicks about their abuse at his hands and sent packing that very day? Of course they had been told before about it by several boys but it was only when Fr Hicks demanded action that they got rid of him from the seminary – although they never reported him to the police and he was allowed to live out the rest of his days in Italy till his death in 2011.