A 45-year-old Italian Catholic
Priest, Rev. Father Vito Isacchi, has been forced to resign after he was caught
sleeping with a church member’s wife.
Father Isacchi tendered his
resignation in the archdiocese of L’Aquila on Tuesday after Corte d’Appello di
L’Aquila’s ruling on the matter was made public.
According to the Telegraph UK,
the court gave the ruling after a five-year trial of the priest.
The court also ordered his
alleged lover to pay her estranged husband 15,000 euros (£13,400/N6million) for
the depression he suffered over their affair.
The court, however, excused
Isacchi, who is also known as ‘Don Vito’ from paying any compensation as the
court found him, “irrelevant” to any violation of the marriage due to the fact
that he was not married.
Father Isacchi, however,
expressed regret over the incident, saying he had repented for his actions but
resigned in a letter to the local archbishop, Monsignor Giuseppe Petrocchi,
amid an outcry over the case.
L’Aquila diocese in a statement
said, “Don Vito recognizes his moral responsibility and asks forgiveness for
the upset and suffering caused to the religious and social community.
“In particular he has indicated
he intends to reject the payment specified by the sentence.”
Father Isacchi comes from the
northern city of Bergamo and was transferred from his Rome parish to l’Aquila,
70 miles from the capital, in 2010 after news of the scandal broke.
The judge in his ruling said,
“The petitioner’s claim against the woman must be accepted and dismissed
against the defendant Isacchi, as it presupposes a violation of the obligation
of fidelity in the marriage, an obligation for which the third party (Isacchi)
is completely irrelevant.”
The court sentence was issued a
year ago and made final six months ago but just came to light this week.
Councils to the woman’s husband
have urged the church to take further action against Father Isacchi who they
say has violated canon law and his vow of celibacy.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa
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ReplyDeleteToo bad
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