Deaf students come forward about priest sexual abuse

A group of victims have gone on Italian television to accuse two dozen priests of abusing children at a Verona school for the deaf for decades. Their coming forward confirmed allegations made in a statement signed by 67 former students describing systemic sexual abuse, pedophilia and physical punishment throughout the second half of the 20^th century. The statement accused 24 priests and lay brothers from the Company of Mary of fondling and sodomizing students in dormitories, bathrooms, and priests’ quarters. In fact, one of the accused priests is even on the track to sainthood, the local diocese having sought to have him beatified. The priests apparently threatened to beat any boy who took news of the abuse to parents or the authorities; however, even then they may have found little solace, as the students name even the bishop of the diocese as participating in the molestation.

This case closely matches one in Wisconsin where a priest molested 200 boys at a school for the deaf between the 1950s and 1970s. Pope Benedict has taken heat for having halted the prosecution of the priest responsible, back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger.