First clergy sex abuse case opens
VATICAN CITY — For the first time, a clergy sex abuse trial opened Wednesday in the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, with one priest accused of molesting an altar boy in the Vatican’s youth seminary and another priest accused of covering it up.
The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls just across the street from where Pope Francis lives and the criminal tribunal itself. The seminary, which is run by a Como, Italybased association of priests, serves as a residence for boys ages 12 to 18, who serve as altar boys at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.
According to the indictment read aloud Wednesday, the Rev. Gabriele Martinelli, 28, is accused of abusing his authority as a more senior seminarian to force a younger seminarian into “carnal acts” of sodomy and masturbation, using violence and threats, from 2007 to 2012.
The former seminary rector, the Rev. Enrico Radice, is charged with having helped Martinelli avoid investigators by telling the Como bishop that the victim’s allegations were baseless and telling Vatican prosecutors that he knew of no sexual misconduct in the seminary.
Both men appeared in the courtroom Wednesday, wearing masks as part of the Vatican’s anticoronavirus restrictions, and huddled with their lawyers after the brief, eightminute hearing. Neither has responded publicly to the accusations.
The scandal is particularly grave because the abuse allegedly occurred within Vatican City itself, and the allegations were known since at least 2012 but were covered up by the Vatican and other church authorities until the victim and his roommate went public in 2017.
The key whistleblower in the case, Kamil Jarzembowski, said he wrote Francis and other church authorities several letters over the years detailing what he had seen as the roommate of the alleged victim, but never received a reply: He reported seeing his roommate repeatedly molested by Martinelli at night when Martinelli would enter their dorm room. He has said the molestation began when both were minors and continued after Martinelli turned 18.