The Strange Case of the Bishop of Piazza Armerina
What on earth is going on?
The Pope recently made a few seemingly off the cuff remarks about the Bishop of Piazza Armerina, Sicily, Mgr Rosario Gisana. This is what the Pope said: ‘This bishop is good. He has been persecuted, slandered, but remained firm. He is a good man.’ (Bravo, questo vescovo, bravo. È stato perseguitato, calunniato e lui fermo, sempre, giusto, uomo giusto.) The official Vatican account can be accessed here.
The Pope is sticking up for Bishop Gisana, who is in turn in trouble for sticking up for one of his priests, a Father Rugolo, who is on trial for sexual abuse. But the Bishop has offered more than just moral support for the priest. It goes much further.
Bishop Gisana is currently accused of two misdeeds. The first concerns the trial of a catechist for sexual abuse. This case has been running since 2022, and the complainant says that he/she informed the Bishop immediately. But the Bishop denies this.
The second concerns the case of the priest Rugolo. In the trial, various recorded conversations have been aired between the priest and his Bishop. In one, the Bishop says ‘Dear Giuseppe, the evidence is all there for you to become a saint.’ (Caro Giuseppe, per te ci sono tutti i presupposti per diventare Santo). In another recording, the Bishop assures the priest that he has buried (insabbiato) everything. He also remarks that there are people who have done much worse. Sicily has long been the land of the incriminating phone recordings, but this is pretty bad.
It gets worse. At some point a Carabiniere, Colonel Lombardi, head of the Carabinieri in Enna, made an appointment to see the bishop to discuss the case. The police were suspicious about this high-ranking officer going to see the Bishop out of hours and out of uniform. The Bishop explained that Lombardi came to him to advise him to get a new lawyer for the priest, because the lawyer he already had was probably going to be investigated for collusion with the Mafia. Or at least that is what the Bishop says. Lombardi has been transferred from Sicily, and is awaiting trial for the equivalent of perverting the course of justice.
So what on earth is going on in the diocese of Piazza Armerina, and what is its Bishop up to? Why has the Bishop tried his best to defend a priest accused of sexual abuse, and why has the Pope tried to protect the Bishop? The lawyers in the case and the complainant have been vocal in their reaction. The lawyer has pointed out that the Pope can know little of the case, which is coming to a conclusion, and sees his remarks as an unwarranted interference in the judicial process. The complainant against Rugolo has asked to see the Pope personally to explain what happened to him.
All this is very embarrassing for the Church, though none of this is, sadly, new; there are plenty of parallel cases in the last decade. Nothing I have said above can be disputed, all is in the public forum. But there are two things I would like to comment on.
First, there was a time when the Church in Sicily was trusted, and was, perhaps the only public body to be trusted. This case will damage that trust. This undermines the good work done by hundreds of ordinary Sicilian priests. It provides a doleful counterweight to the heroic witness of priests like Father (now the Blessed) Pino Puglisi.
Second, it is not surprising that the police are investigating Colonel Lombardi. There may be a lot more to come out there. Was Lombardi offering unsolicited advice to the Bishop, or was Lombardi an envoy of other darker forces? Was Lombardi offering the Bishop help from you know who, making him an offer he would not refuse? Well, if he did, and this is pure speculation, it seems not to have worked. All sorts of powerful people have been dragged in to the case, including the Pope himself, and it seems not to have made any difference. The Mafia way of doing things may still be the Church way of doing things – we protect our own – but the Italian lawyers and press seem to have got over that. Things are not looking good for Rugolo or his Bishop, or indeed the Pope.