← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Alassio, Savona, Liguria, Italy · 2009

Italy: Albenga-Imperia diocese priest's conviction for abusing an altar server stands, though the church later cleared him

Request a correction or reply

Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

  • 2013

    Court of Cassation confirmed the sentence definitively.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic parish priest of San Vincenzo e San Giovanni, Alassio

Organization

Diocese of Albenga-Imperia

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victim was an altar server of the priest's own parish, whose access to and unchallengeable authority over the child arose directly from his priestly office.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2009-01-01 · conviction, final

    Italian criminal courts through the Corte di Cassazione, Italy. Don Luciano Massaferro, parish priest of San Vincenzo e San Giovanni in Alassio, was convicted of sexually abusing a young altar server of his parish and sentenced to seven years and eight months' imprisonment, arrested on 29 December 2009. The Court of Cassation confirmed the sentence definitively in 2013, and he was released in early 2016 on good-conduct credit.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • parish priest's office and access to a child serving as altar server in his own parish

Cited record

Sources

specialist advocacy press survey report Rete L'Abuso: Abusi sessuali del clero, in Liguria 69 casi in 25 anni: in 5 condannati in via definitiva.

Regional survey listing Massaferro among five definitively-convicted Liguria clergy, with sentence and timeline.

national newspaper contrast disposition report Il Fatto Quotidiano: Alassio, prete condannato per pedofilia in via definitiva. Ma tribunale ecclesiastico lo assolve: "Innocente, celebri messa".

Reports the 2018 ecclesiastical tribunal's acquittal and reinstatement to public ministry, contrasted explicitly with the standing definitive criminal conviction.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis
https://retelabuso.org/2025/11/04/abusi-sessuali-del-clero-in-liguria-69-casi-in-25-anni-in-5-condannati-in-via-definitiva/ Corpus classification: specialist-advocacy-press; evidentiary role: survey-report. SHA-256 578a15de7c9679a71711e04107c874fad2b9d6b2dcdefec36d1edd766c4fc0df
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2018/02/27/alassio-prete-condannato-per-pedofilia-in-via-definitiva-ma-tribunale-ecclesiastico-lo-assolve-innocente-celebri-messa/ Corpus classification: national-newspaper; evidentiary role: contrast-disposition-report. SHA-256 020d7100bbd68c14d9910338a843d7fbd0628d5a0ca67f420250a699b47b7232
Retrieval
2026-07-20 · Preserved
Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

Named in this record? Request a correction, report a changed disposition, or submit a response.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

Browse all 796 Christian institutions & contexts records