Pope Francis Appoints His Chief Investigator CDF Secretary

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VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Vatican announced on Tuesday that Pope Francis is appointing Abp. Charles Scicluna of Malta as deputy secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Scicluna is replacing Bp. Joseph Di Noia, marking this as the highest position he's held in his 23-year career in the Vatican.

In 1995, he was appointed deputy promoter of the Church's highest court and then promoter of justice in the CDF in 2002 where he investigated clerical sexual abuse cases.

In April 2014, Pope Francis sent Scicluna to Scotland to investigate Cdl. Keith O'Brien, who resigned as archbishop of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh after it was revealed he was involved for decades in homosexual relationships with various members of his own clergy.

Pope Francis sent Scicluna to Chile in January to investigate numerous clerical sex abuse cases among the bishops and clergy there. In February, the Pope apologized to clerical sex abuse victims for calling them "dumb" and "stupid" in 2015 and virtually ignoring their pleas for an investigation for three years.

Scicluna had turned in a 2,300-page report to the pontiff showing complaints to be credible. As a result, the entire conference of Chilean bishops formally tendered their resignations for their direct or indirect participation in and cover-up of sexual abuse.

After ex-Cdl. Theodore McCarrick's homosexual sex abuse was publicly revealed in July, a source revealed to Church Militant in August that the CDF began an investigation, headed by Scicluna, into the U.S. bishops' handling of sex abuse cases. On Oct. 6, the Vatican confirmed the investigating, noting, "We will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead."

Besides Scicluna's many investigative duties, he was appointed archbishop of Malta in February 2015. There was controversy in February 2017 when seminarians alleged the archbishop told them "the seminary gate is open" — meaning they can leave — if they disagree with parts of Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia regarding giving Holy Communion to sexually active adulterers.

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