Catholic Priest Sentenced in Italy for Child Sex Abuse
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False
Churches, False Brethren, False Gospels
Catholic Priest Sentenced in Italy for Child Sex Abuse
2012-05-04 05:42:05 Xinhua
An Italian priest was sentenced in the northern city of Genoa on
Thursday to nine and a half years in prison for child sex abuse
and attempting to recruit minors into prostitution.
Father Riccardo Seppia from the nearby town of Sastri Ponente was
also ordered to pay a fine of 28,000 euros (36,821 U.S. dollars)
for his crimes that have rocked the Catholic Church in Italy.
The prosecution had requested a longer sentence of almost 12
years.
Seppia has been in jail since he was arrested in May last year on
paedophilia charges and alleged cocaine use when investigators
revealed recordings of tapped phone calls in which Seppia told a
drug dealer to arrange sexual encounters with minors.
Before being sentenced on Thursday, Seppia, a parish priest in the
village of Sastri Ponente, asked for forgiveness in a prepared
statement, saying that what he had done was "wrong."
"I ask forgiveness for my moral behavior because I made mistakes,"
the statement said. "I made a mistake conducting myself in that
way."
The Catholic Church in Savona recently began offering priests a
course designed to stop paedophilia after Seppia's child abuse sex
scandal left the community shocked and shaken.
Seppia's case was particularly damaging as Genoa Archbishop Angelo
Bagnasco, who is also head of the Italian Bishops Conference, had
been working with Pope Benedict XVI to establish tough new
international guidelines on how bishops should handle clerical sex
abuse.
Referring to tapped telephone conversations, investigators alleged
that Seppia asked for sexual encounters with young and vulnerable
boys.
"I do not want 16-year-old boys but younger," he allegedly said.
"Fourteen-year-olds are alright. Look for needy boys who have
family problems."
The bishop for Savona-Noli, Monsignor Vittorio Lupi, recently sent
a letter to priests, teachers and others involved in church
activities or associations to promote the new course to improve
awareness and stop clerical sexual abuse.
The Catholic Church has suffered from the widespread impact of sex
abuse scandals around the world in countries including the United
States, Ireland, Belgium, Germany and Austria and has been accused
of failing to take enough action to tackle the problem or bring
those responsible to justice.
Two investigations led by prosecutor Giovanni Battista Ferro are
currently being conducted into pedophilia in Catholic dioceses in
Savona and surrounding areas.
They include a number of sexual abuse claims that allegedly took
place between the early 1990s and 2000.