Don Mauro Galli, ex vicar in the parish of San Pietro in the Canazza district of Legnano and in charge of the Youth Ministry of the parishes of S. Teresa del Bambino Gesù, dei Santi Magi in Legnano and of SS. Redentore in Legnarello, has been sentenced to three years of house arrest by the Second Criminal Section of the Court of Appeal of Milan.
The events in question date back to 2011, when he was a parish vicar in Rozzano: he is accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy, whom the priest invited to spend the night with him on December 19th and 20th. Although he admitted to sleeping with the boy in a double bed, the priest denied the abuse, while the teenager at the time said he had suffered heavy sexual advances. He arrived in Legnano in 2012, a year after the accusations. The sentence in the second appeal trial comes after 12 years.
In the first instance, Don Mauro Galli had been sentenced to six years and four months, on appeal the sentence had been reduced to five and a half years, and finally the Cassation Court had annulled the conviction and referred it to another second instance trial. The sentence was issued on Tuesday, September 26th, with the Court of Appeal of Milan accepting the plea agreement proposal with a final sentence of three years to be served under house arrest, with the possibility of authorizations to leave for work-related matters.
The Diocese of Milan has issued a statement published on its institutional website: “We have learned that yesterday the Court of Appeal of Milan accepted the request for a plea agreement on the grounds of appeal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Defense of Don Mauro Galli. After the annulment of the sentence of five and a half years of imprisonment for the crime of sexual violence – annulment decided by the Court of Cassation in June 2022 – the priest has been sentenced to the substitute sanction of house arrest for three years, with authorization to carry out work activities for eight hours a day during the week. The mitigating circumstance of “lesser gravity” has also been recognized on the assumption of the unsustainability of the more serious accusations contained in the complaint filed in 2014 for an incident dating back to December 2011. From the point of view of the ecclesiastical order, while awaiting the outcome of the ongoing canonical process, under the responsibility of the Holy See, Don Mauro Galli remains suspended from the public exercise of the ministry, a condition in which he has been since the beginning of the proceedings.
Although the decision of the Court of Appeal appears to be in line with the decision of the Supreme Court, which had cast doubt on the more serious conduct attributed to the priest, the Church of Milan remains affected and saddened by an incident that has caused great suffering for the victim, his family, and all the other parties involved.
In recognizing the need for conversion and never being immune to scandals and weaknesses, the Ambrosian Church – like the entire universal Church – is also aware that the prevention and combating of all forms of abuse (sexual, but also of power and conscience) cannot tolerate delays and uncertainties. For this reason, the Diocese has intensified its commitment in recent years to training, prevention, and combating abuse, particularly against minors, in line with the indications of the Holy See and the Italian Episcopal Conference.
In 2019, in conjunction with the publication of the Guidelines on Training and Prevention – to which every institution, community, and educator of the Diocese is called to adhere -, the figure of the Diocesan Representative for the Protection of Minors was established, accompanied since November 2021 by the Listening Service, which has been entrusted with the task of initial reception and listening to those who declare themselves victims of abuse within the Church, as well as to people who are aware of a situation of alleged abuse.”
