Comboni Missionaries and Pope Francis

Pope Francis, last weekend, said that the aftermath of child abuse is enough to make one “cry out loud”. He was replying to fellow Argentine and anti-paedophile campaigner, Roberto Plazza.

Pope Francis then said that preventing child abuse is the main objective of his special child protection commission.

He has shown that he is serious about tackling child abuse by clerics several times recently. He has defrocked several priests for child abuse. He also had Polish Archbishop, Jozef Wesolowski, arrested in the Vatican for allegedly abusing children. That was the first ever arrest inside the Vatican for alleged child abuse.

It has cost the Catholic Church billions all over the world in the last few years. However, Pope Francis is tackling it head on. He has aplogised for the abuse several times. He has also stiffened punsihments for paedophilia in the Holy See’s laws.

Missionari Comboniani

So, what about the Comboni Missionaries? Are they following Pope Francis’s lead? Are they ruthlessly exposing and hunting down paedophile’s in their midst? Are they having paedophiles arrested?

Not a bit of it!

They are still obfuscating and dragging their feet.

They recently paid out £120,000 to 11 boys who accused Comboni Missionaries’ priests of sexual abuse of minors. However, they were very grudging about it. They said that, as they weren’t insured at the time, this was just the cheapest option. They said that as two of the priests were dead it would never be known what happened 50 years ago at Mirfield.

Father Romano Nardo

Two of those are dead. However, there is one still alive, Father Roman Nardo. When Mark Murray contacted the Comboni Missionaries in 1996 to tell them about the abuse perpertrated on him over 20 years before, the Comboni MIssionaries investigated it.

They decided that Father Romano should be removed immediately from Uganda where he had worked for 26 years. In 1970, just after Mark Murray was seen coming out of Father Nardo’s room in Mirfield at 6am by another priest, Father Nardo was sent immediately to the Missions in Uganda, before the time he was due to be sent there.

Crimes Have Been Committed

West Yorkshire Police have investigated the abuse accusations against Father john Pinkman, Father Domenico Valmaggia and Father Romano Nardo and announced that they believed that crimes had been committed. They would have sought the arrests of Father Valmaggia and Father Pinkman if they were still alive.

They requested that the Comboni Missionaries send Father Romano Nardo to the UK for questioning as regards the abuse accusations from the Comboni Missionaries house in Verona where he is resident.

Father Enrique Sanchez turned that down point blamk saying he was not in a fit mental condition to travel nor answer questions. However, he was mentally fit enought to say mass just a few years ago.

Grudging

The Comboni Missionaries, despite paying out £120,000 have admitted nothing. They have refused to apologise. They never reported any incidents to the police (like Pope Francis did) even though they were told about it multiple times at the time. They are refusing to hand over a priest for questioning to the UK police.

Not only are they out of step with the times, they are out of step with Pope Francis.

The Superior General of the Comboni Missionaries worldwide is Father Enrique Sanchez, He is refusing to hand Father Nardo over.

Father David Glenday

However, there is an even higher ranked Comboni Missionary in the Catholic Church and that is ex-Superior General, Father David Glenday, who has such a high position in the Vatican that he is in regular touch with Pope Francis. He must know Pope Francis’s thoughts on child abuse.

It’s about time that the Comboni Missionaries came round and adpoted the new Catholic Church policy on child abuse.

2015 would be a good time to start.

Note:- The Comboni Missionaries are known as Missionari Comboniani in Italy, Misioneros Combonianos in Spanish speaking countries, Comboni-Missionare in Germany, Missionaires Comboniens in French speaking countries and Missionarios Combonianos in Portunguese speaking countries.