Photo Credit: Associazione Meter

Father Fortunato Di Noto first encountered a spark for his lifelong fight against the darkness of child sexual exploitation in the early 1990s as a young deacon. Thirty years on, his work continues to be a beacon of hope for victims worldwide.

“What I saw [online images in the early years of this work] changed my life forever,” the Sicilian priest told the Register. “It called me to a vocation, born from my baptism, to fight this tragedy without rest. Thus began my journey, and with it, the persecutions.”

In 1996 Father Di Noto founded Associazione Meter (Greek for “mother”), an apostolate dedicated to combating pedophilia and child exploitation. Their most recent annual report found that 2023 was the most extreme year on record, with almost 3 million photos and videos detected online.

Father Di Noto said, “Thousands of victims have been welcomed and listened to by Meter. All stories are full of suffering, where the sky is lost, and the abusers made them eat dust along with them — vile and dangerous snakes. I have listened to very young children and adolescents, but also adults who still live with this pain.”

Father Di Noto gathered some of the stories, authorized by the victims, in two books: Abbiamo ritrovato la vita (We Found Life Again) and Io, guarirò (I Will Heal).

Being in this field of work and daily confronting the overwhelming face of evil is possible only because of the support his Catholic faith offers him, said Father Di Noto.

“The gift of faith gives me the belief that even one victim can find the possibility of being cared for, protected and loved again. Without faith, I would have gone mad or taken justice into my own hands in a different way. … I ask the Lord to preserve my faith in the hope of a resurrection of life for those who have been abused. The Eucharist, the Word of God, prayer and the community of believers I live with provide the nourishment not to die, not to be crushed by evil.

”Father Di Noto noted that no single profile fits all child victims of sexual abuse, but that they often share one main characteristic: Loneliness. He said, “The pedophile exploits the loneliness in the child’s life to fill it, to become a friend, to become a figure of reference, to trap them emotionally. It’s called a trap because the child’s guilt, instilled by the pedophile, leads them to say nothing, to keep the secret, to continue suffering. … Courts often lack a suitable environment to accommodate a child and procedures appropriate for listening to their story. Often, they find themselves exposing episodes of abuse in a cold courtroom in the presence of numerous unknown adults.”

So how can we prevent such crimes and bring about justice in the face of these tragedies?

Father Di Noto said, “Apply the laws and invest in a cultural process that says not only No to violence, but that sexual abuse, pedophilia and child pornography are crimes against humanity, Say it, say it always, and shape consciences.”

“These are grave acts, intolerable crimes, sins that cry out for justice,” he added. “Some studies and reflections and my experiences suggest that pedophiles are the product of a hedonistic, individualistic society, where the exaltation of dominance and sexual perversion have reduced the child to a sexual object of uncontrollable perversion. We must work together to create paths of beauty against all forms of ugliness.”

Over the 30-year period that Father Di Noto has been working against child sexual abuse, he has received regular death threats from the child pornographers and criminals who abuse these children. He has been threatened, slandered and defamed.

“Sometimes I feel alone, but fortunately, there are God’s angels,” he said. “The same children defend and pray for me. As well as the network of prayer from cloistered nuns and many people of good will, many victims.”

Father Di Noto is considering writing a book about his journey in spirituality and his faith.

“I am, above all, a baptized person called to holiness, and I am trying, walking on steep and rugged paths, dark and illuminated by the presence of Jesus Christ, the light of the world and our hope,” he said. “All the servants, venerables, saints, child martyrs — and there are so many — I entrust myself to them.”

“As long as I have breath, I will do everything to save, help and accompany those who are victims of this human barbarism. I know, I won’t save everyone, but some will be saved and just that, gives me peace and strength to keep going.”

Zofia Czubak is a Polish freelance journalist living in the U.K. An attendee of the 2024 EWTN Summer Academy in Rome, she recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia journalism from the University of Northampton, England.