Croatian bishop: Church not involved in orphanage abuse conviction

Published: 2006-06-14

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A Croatian bishop said he was surprised that a worker in a church-run orphanage was convicted for raping and molesting a child, but that the allegations legally cannot touch the church. Auxiliary Bishop Valentin Pozaic of Zagreb, Croatia, said the church was "surprised, since three previous inspections found no evidence of any crime here. This ruling contradicts everything. "If this crime was committed, it deserves a heavy sentence," he told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. "But we accepted the findings of the three police and government investigations, which failed to uncover any such wrongdoing. So we really don't know what is going on." In early June, the Zagreb County Court convicted Mario Barlovic of "forcible sexual intercourse with a disabled child in a particularly humiliating manner" while employed during 1998-1999 at the Caritas-run and Zagreb Archdiocese-owned orphanage in Brezovica. He received a six-and-a-half-year sentence. Barlovic has denied the charges. Bishop Pozaic predicted Barlovic would appeal.

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