Testimonies in the trial for abuse in the Presemina …

Page 12 in Italy

From Rome

A impressive testimony offered this Wednesday before the judges of the Vatican Court one of the alleged victims of nuisance and sexual abuse at the Presemaire Saint Pius X of the Holy See, in the name of the seminarian of the time and today a priest Gabriele Martinelli.

The accused in this process are two priests from the diocese of Como (northern Italy): Martinelli, who was ordained a priest in 2017, and Enrico Radice, now retired, who since 2002 was rector of the Preseminario and is accused of concealing Martinelli.

Located inside the Vatican and very close to the residence of San Marta, where Pope Francis lives, the Preseminario San Pio X is a religious structure that welcomes high school students from all over the world to help them discern their vocation, that is, to help them know whether or not they want to be priests. While in the pre-seminary, the young people have the task of acting as altar boys in the celebrations that take place in St. Peter’s Basilica. This is why sometimes the pre-seminar is called “The Pope’s choirboy school”.

The questioning of the alleged victim – whose name we prefer not to reveal, putting only the initials LG – by the judges lasted nearly three hours, during which he spoke of six years of harassment and abuse suffered since the age of about 13. . “He was getting into my bed while I was sleeping”, and the other boys who slept in the same room “slept or pretended to sleep.” In bed the discomfort consisted of fondling or masturbation. The actual intercourse took place in an empty room that Martinelli had appropriated for himself and that it was called “the pharmacy”, but also in Martinelli’s room. At first, the victim said he had suffered a great shock, but later resigned himself.

LG also told judges that he entered the Preseminar in 2006 on a proposal from the parish priest of his town, located a few kilometers north of Milan. His parents had divorced and for him going to Rome and serving in St. Peter’s Basilica was a kind of “social rescue”. “I was very proud and it was also a source of pride for my community. My photo with the Pope was on the parish calendars, ”he said. The first two months at the Preseminar were very positive, but towards the end of 2006 the abuse began. “Martinelli would get into my bed at night. For me it was a very strange thing, I was very young, I had not yet thrown myself into the world of sex. At home, I had never heard of sex. I felt great confusion. I didn’t understand what was going on, ”he said. “He would pull my pants down and start touching me and then masturbating. When it was over, he left as if he hadn’t done anything. It was great for me. I felt paralyzed ”. These abuses are repeated up to two or three times a week, then he started demanding full sex, he counted.

The judges asked him why he hadn’t tried to react or shout. The victim said that when Martinelli entered the room, he attempted to push him away by making noise with the dresser drawers or tapping on the wall. Then Martinelli left. But he came back after half an hour. At the time of the abuse, the victim said she felt “a total separation between soul and body. My body was there as an object “, he said.

In 2009, when he was older, he decided to speak to Rector Radice, but he was not explicit about the abuse suffered, even though he told him that Martinelli pissed him off. “Now, at 30, I feel guilty for not having been clearer,” he said. Radice in any case treated him badly, very harshly, accusing him of only being envious and threatening to call his parish priest and his family.. After that, LG resigned itself to its fate and did not attempt to report anything. Martinelli, according to the victim, functioned almost as a “delegate of the rector” and used that power to obtain sexual favors, extorting young people, even threatening to expel them from the Preseminario.

In 2013, when the alleged victim left San Pío X, wrote a letter to the then Bishop of Como, Diego Coletti, to whom he reminded him of the “physical violence” he had suffered, and also told him that he did not want to cause problems for him but that he only needed a little money to be able to pay for psychotherapy sessions. But he never received a response.

Several years later, Kamil, a Polish colleague of the Preseminar, who had also suffered abuse from Martinelli, insisted that LG speak out on the matter. “I didn’t want to hear it. For me, it was a finished subject ”. And it all went on until a group of reporters on a TV show called “Le iene” (The Hyenas) persuaded him to speak up.

LG today has serious problems sleeping, sexually and also building trusting relationships with other peopleHe said, also remembering that he had decided to leave the Preseminary and not to follow the path of the priesthood because he felt “disgust and disgust” towards the ecclesiastical environment. “I was nauseous thinking about the possibility of attending a seminar,” he said.

Started in October 2020, the process was to continue on March 18 with a visit by the judges to the Preseminar. But for reasons related to covid, this visit has been postponed. The next hearing will take place on March 26, where the testimony of another alleged victim, Polish Kamil, a colleague of the LG presidency, will be heard.

This trial – like many others around the world against pedophilia by Church members – was facilitated by decisions made by Francisco in 2019, after a meeting with cardinals and bishops around the world on sexual abuse took place in February this year. Among the measures taken by Francisco in 2019, we should mention the abolition of a norm which prevented the realization of a process in the Vatican if the offended person had not lodged a complaint within one year, from the time the events occurred. And as expert psychologists assure us, people who have suffered abuse of this type can hardly admit it or file a complaint in less than a year.

Another important decision which has helped to shed light on these facts, after Francis repeatedly insisted on “zero tolerance” for abuse, the abolition of “pontifical secrecy” not only on complaints, but on processes and decisions referring to persons who have committed abuses against minors and also referring to those who have concealed them, often moving the culprits from one parish to another.