Catechist who allegedly used fake profile to lure under age boys is granted bail

A 36-year-old parish catechist from Żebbuġ walked out of the Valletta courthouse on Monday evening after Magistrate Astrid May Grima granted him bail against a €10,000 personal guarantee and a €20,000 third-party guarantee. The man, whose identity is still protected by a court-issued anonymity order, stands accused of using a fake female social-media profile to groom at least three boys, aged between 13 and 15, from his own confirmation class.

The charges—grooming, defilement, possession and distribution of child pornography—have rocked the tight-knit west-central town, where the parish is the gravitational centre of community life. For many Żebbuġ residents, Sunday mass is followed by coffee at the band club, and catechism classes are treated like extended family gatherings. “It’s the kind of place where the priest knows your nanna’s hip operation schedule,” one local parent told Hot Malta outside the Church of the Assumption. “When the news broke, it felt like your own cousin had been arrested.”

Investigators told the court that the accused allegedly created an Instagram account under the name “Maria Sant,” complete with filtered selfies lifted from a Polish lifestyle influencer. Over a two-month period he is said to have complimented the boys’ football skills and invited them to a private group chat where the conversations quickly turned sexual. Police say they recovered more than 200 screenshots from the boys’ phones, some containing explicit images the youngsters had been pressured to send.

The case has reopened a national conversation about child safeguarding in the island’s Catholic institutions. Malta’s 2014 “Safeguarding Children in the Church” guidelines require every parish to appoint a trained safeguarding officer, yet sources inside the Curia admit that compliance remains patchy. “We have the policies,” one priest admitted, “but in smaller villages the catechist is often the sacristan’s nephew who helped out once and never left.”

Education Minister Clifton Grima was quick to issue a statement reminding parents that state-run PSD (Personal & Social Development) lessons now include digital-literacy modules, but critics argue that one hour a week is no match for a determined predator. “Parents still treat catechism as safer than Fortnite,” said Dr Maria Micallef, a sociologist at the University of Malta. “This illusion of sanctity can blind families to red flags.”

Outside the courtroom, a group of mothers clutched worry beads and swapped stories about suspicious friend requests their sons had received. One woman, whose 14-year-old attends the same youth group, said the parish priest held an emergency meeting on Sunday and asked the congregation to pray for “all victims, known and unknown.” Yet frustration is simmering. A banner appeared overnight on the church railings reading “Protect Our Children, Not Our Reputation” before being removed by parish workers at dawn.

The accused must sign a bail book at Żebbuġ police station daily, observe a curfew between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., and stay at least 100 metres away from the parish church and the local secondary school. He has also been barred from using any internet-enabled device. His next court sitting is scheduled for 13 July, when a magisterial inquiry into the diocese’s handling of earlier complaints is expected to be presented.

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Malta has placed the man on immediate administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal canonical investigation. Archbishop Charles Scicluna—who famously prosecuted paedophile priests under Pope Benedict XVI—met with the victims’ families on Tuesday morning. In a brief statement he promised “radical transparency,” a phrase that will be tested when the Church publishes its own report later this summer.

For Żebbuġ, the scars may linger. The town’s annual feast of St Philip of Agira is only weeks away, and the question on many lips is whether the boys will feel safe enough to march behind their band. As one elderly resident put it while sipping tea at the village square: “The bells will still ring, but their sound will never be quite the same.”