Rome, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian bishop testified this week in the trial of
a priest accused of child abuse, saying that although the accusations were
"alarming," he did not stop the priest's contact with children.

Monsignor Gino Reali took the stand Thursday at Rome's Tribunal courthouse,
which was packed with journalists and about 50 supporters of the priest,
the Rev. Ruggero Conti.

Conti is accused of molesting seven boys at the Nativita di Santa Maria
Santissima parish in Rome. He faces charges of committing sexual violence
and prostitution.

Reali told the court he found the accusations against Conti "alarming" and
decided to speak about it with 20 to 25 people, including two young alleged
victims.

"I tried to get to the bottom of the rumors by talking to other priests,
other religious people, and with other people who work at the parish,"
Reali testified. "I was told that some of Don Conti's actions could be
interpreted the wrong way by malicious minds."

He said he gave "indications" to Conti "to take a larger spiritual role and
to take on a more prudent behavior toward the children, and not to have
boys sleeping at his home."

Two alleged victims have told police that Conti masturbated them and forced
them to perform oral sex on him in his home, where he often invited them to
dinner and to watch movies, according to court documents.

One alleged victim testified Thursday that boys would often sleep at
Conti's house, and that the priest would ask one of the boys to sleep with
him in his room. Matteo Marongiu, 24, told the court he didn't know what
went on inside the room.

Reali testified he couldn't control what Conti was doing. "I tried to
listen to him and to what those (who) were around him had to say," he said.

The bishop said he even established a diocesan tribunal to investigate
Conti's actions based on a victim's account, but a hearing never took place
because the victim backed down from testifying.

When Reali was asked by the civil lawyers representing some of the victims
at the trial why he didn't stop Conti's contact with children, given the
gravity of the accusations, Reali replied it was because he tried to get
the facts and not just rely on rumors.

"There were so many rumors," he said. "So many of them arrive at a bishop's
desk. I need certainty. I encouraged them (the victims) to hand in their
accounts in writing."

Vatican guidelines regarding clerical abuse state the local diocese must
investigate "every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric," and
that "if the allegation has a semblance of truth," it needs to be referred
to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so it can
decide whether a canonical trial should be launched.

Reali testified he was aware of his obligation under the guidelines.

"Did you alert them?" asked Nino Marazzita, the attorney for some of the
alleged victims.

"I did not inform them," Reali replied.

Reali said he met "informally" with a member of the Doctrine of the Faith
panel after Conti was arrested in June 2008, but he did not elaborate on
details of the meeting.

Marazzita urged the prosecutor to charge Reali with aiding and abetting the
crime of pedophilia.

The "crime of pedophilia must be fought by eradicating the pedophiles and
also by eradicating those who allow it," Marazzita said.

This is the first time such an indictment request has been against an
Italian bishop in relation to the sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric,
Marazzita told CNN.

The Catholic Church has been rocked this year by allegations of child abuse
by Catholic clergy in Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Netherlands, following
similar accusations in the United States in the past decade. A damning
Irish-government-backed report last year said the Dublin Archdiocese had
systematically covered up such allegations.

Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly insisted the church will do everything in
its power to prevent child abuse, but Conti's trial may undercut some of
those assurances, especially since the alleged abuse of boys happened well
after a child abuse scandal came to light in the United States.

Earlier at the hearing, Marongiu told the court Conti frequently made
advances to him when he was 13 years old in all sorts of places, including
in a car and during confession. He said it did not happen in the
confessional booth, and that Conti would hear confession anywhere at any
time.

"When he was driving, he would always put his hands in between my thighs,"
Marongiu said. "He would also kiss me. ... I knew what he was doing, but I
agreed to let him do it because it was Don Ruggero, a person I esteemed and
liked. ... I thought it was his way of being friendly and affectionate."

Asked by a civil lawyer if he considered those advances to be sexual
molestation, Marongiu replied no, and that he thought it was consensual as
long as it was a hand on his thighs.

He said he thought differently when it came to Conti kissing ears: "I
didn't like feeling his tongue in my ears, so I would tell him to stop and
he would."

Marongiu testified that he and his friends, though subjected to such
advances, thought the world of Conti. They were 13 and 14 years old, he
said, too young to understand what was happening.

He said he changed his mind about Conti when his cousin told him what the
priest had done to him. Marongiu told the court he had no reason to doubt
his cousin; he would not elaborate on what happened between his cousin and
Conti except to say it was an act of molestation and he hoped Conti would
get a life sentence for what he did.

At the end of the hearing, Conti's supporters chanted, "Viva Don Ruggero"
outside the courtroom and some hugged and kissed him as police escorted him
away.

One supporter told CNN she thought the alleged victims testifying at the
trial "are mad ... simply mad" and their claims "cannot be true."

Another said she felt angry hearing one of them testify "because what they
are saying is not true," and one woman said she thought the alleged victims
were being manipulated by "anti-clerical forces."

A teenage boy told CNN outside the court that he often went to spend the
night at Conti's house and nothing ever happened.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 15. A verdict is
expected at the beginning of next year.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/21/italy.priest.abuse/?hpt=T2

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