Italy: Trial Set for Bishop, Friend of Francis
Francis continued: "He was persecuted, slandered, and he stood firm, always a just man. That is why, on the day I went to Palermo, I wanted to stop first in Piazza Armerina to greet him; he is a good bishop".
This was an obvious reference to the abuse trial then taking place in Enna against the homosexual Don Giuseppe Rugolo, a protégé of Gisana.
Rugolo was accused by a certain Antonio Messina.
But now Francis is biting his lip, and Monsignor Gisana is in trouble for his handling of the case. On 5 March 2024, Rugolo was sentenced at first instance to four years and six months in prison for homosexual violence against minors.
And on 3 February 2025, the public prosecutor Stefania Leonte announced that the bishop would be prosecuted together with his judicial vicar, Don Vincenzo Murgano, currently parish priest in Enna.
The two are accused of having lied in court during Rugolo's trial.
Specifically, Monsignor Gisana is accused of having lied to the court about the Messina family's request for 25,000 euros in cash, which Monsignor Gisana himself had proposed in exchange for the accuser's silence.
The money was to be collected by Caritas and given to the Messina family with a confidentiality clause, which Antonio Messina refused.
As for Don Murgano, during the hearing of 14 March 2023, he "denied having advised Rugolo Giuseppe on the defence strategy to be adopted in the trial".
He also minimised his support for the accused homosexual, falsely claiming that on the two occasions when he had accompanied Rugolo to his defence lawyer, he had only stayed to greet him for "about ten minutes".
In reality, in 2015, Murgano had advised Messina, who had confided in him about the homosexual abuse, not to denounce Rugolo and not even to alert the bishop.
Following the accusation against the bishop, the Vatican is suddenly up in arms. On 4 February it sent the Apostolic Visitor, Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli of Gorizia, to Piazza Armerina to carry out a "canonical investigation" into the bishop's behaviour.
The Apostolic Visitor will have to verify whether Gisana "really lied". However, there are wiretaps that prove it, which were read out in court during the trial.
"Giuseppe, you haven't understood that the problem is now mine too, because I covered it up", Gisana said, literally.
Gisana and Murgano are due to appear before Judge Maria Rosaria Santoni on 26 May.
Monsignor Gisana is the first Italian bishop to be tried for his handling of an abuse case.
In a 2016 motu proprio, Francis ruled that negligent bishops should be removed from office, but Francis is not one to follow his own rules.
In a communiqué, Bishop Rosario Gisana said he was 'following with serenity the developments in the ongoing criminal proceedings'.
Meanwhile, the first hearing in the appeal trial of Father Giuseppe Rugolo has been set for 8 April at the Caltanissetta Palace of Justice.
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