Noi vittime dei preti pedofili; misbruik in het doveninstituut

di Paolo Tessadri
22 gennaio 2009
L'ESPRESSO

Decine di bambini e ragazzi sordi violentati e molestati in un istituto di Verona fino al 1984. E dopo decenni di tormenti, gli ex allievi trovano la forza di denunciare gli orrori. Ma molti dei sacerdoti sono ancora lì

We victims of pedophile priests

By Paolo Tessadri

Tens of deaf children and boys were abused and molested sexually in a catholic school in Verona until 1984. And after decades of torments, the former students find the force to denounce those horrors. But many of those priests are still there.

For more than a century it has been a symbol of the charity of the church: an Institution specialized to guarantee a better future for deaf and mute children, helping them for their education and the possibility to find a job. The Antonio Provolo’s Instituion in Verona gave hospitality to the children of poor families, sons of the peasants in the north east, where the economic development hadn’t arrived yet. Until the middle of the 1980s, it represented an international model, but in the gloomy building at Chievo, half way between a seminary and a jail, terrible episodes have allegedly happened.

Only now, heartened by the words of condemnation pronounced by pope Ratzinger against pedophile priests, tens of former guests have found the force to come out in the open and denounce their dramatic experience: “ Priests and religious brothers have sexually abused us”. An accusation was underwritten by more than 60 persons, children of both sexes, who lived in the Instituion, and who now write: “We have overcome our fear and reticence”.

The alleged abuses they are referring to went on for 30 years, until 1984. They are ready to make a long list of victims and witnesses, but because of the statute of limitations those who committed those crimes can’t anymore be tried in a court. The deaf mute people who are bearing this drama affirm however of not being interested in the trials or in compensation money. In their writing they say they want to avoid other persons being put at the same risk of being subjected to the same violence: about ten of the priests they are accusing are now old, but still active in the Institution, in the offices of Verona and Chievo. For such a reason, after having informed the bishop of Verona and the higher ups of the Institution, 15 former students sent this magazine their testimony – filmed and in writing – about their experience. The documents are upsetting, and they could give a glimpse about one of the gravest cases of pedophilia in Italy: they refer to 25 priests and the victims could be about one hundred.

The charges

The former students, notwithstanding their impairments, were able to find a way to go on with their lives, keeping within themselves the traces of the horror. After the explosion of the scandals in USA which forced the church to face the problems of pedophilia, and the severe stand by Pope Benedict XVI, they, too, decided not to hide anything. They met in the premises of the Association Antonio Provolo and then they went to the curia and to the people who are responsible for the Institution. One of their last letters was addressed to monsignor Giampietro Mazzono, the judicial vicary, that’s the magistrate of the ecclesiastical tribunal of the dioceses of Verona. It was November 20th, 2008. “ The deaf people decided to inform His Eminence the Bishop what had happened. In the room serving as a confessional in the church of Santa Maria del Pianto in the Institution of Provolo, some priests took the opportunity to touch and be masturbated by the female deaf children and boys (the door was then always locked up).
The sodomite acts happened in the dormitory, in the priests’ rooms and in the lavatories both in the Institute Provolo in Verona and at Chievo. Besides that, during the summer camps, the episodes occurred in Villa Cervi di San Zeno di Montagna”. In addition to that: “As it wasn’t enough, the deaf children and boys were mistreated and beaten up, sometimes even using a stick. The deaf persons can name the priests and the lay brothers involved in those actions and offer their testimony”. There follow the signatures of 67 former students.