Chile announces wide probe into Catholic Church sex abuse

[Swordsmyth]

Chile has investigated 158 members of the country's Roman Catholic Church for committing or covering up sexual abuse against minors and adults, the national prosecutor's office said Monday. The investigations include reports of abuse by bishops, clerics and lay workers filed since 2000. Some of the cases date as far back as 1960.
In all, the number of victims is 266. That includes 178 children and teenagers, and 31 adults. The age of victims was not established in 57 other cases.


In the past, prosecutors in Chile have had to drop charges against members of the clergy accused of sex abuse because the statute of limitations had expired.
But the national prosecutor's office said it wants to "rigorously investigate all sex abuse case cases committed by priests or people related to the Church" against children and adults, "regardless of whether the crimes have prescribed or not, because the victims have a right to be heard by the justice system."
The report said that out of the 158 people investigated in 144 separate investigations, 65 are bishops, priests or deacons who belong to a congregation; 74 do not belong to any congregation; 10 are lay persons in charge of pastoral parishes or linked to schools; and nine were undetermined.
Authorities said 36 of the 144 cases are currently being investigated, and 22 have been sent to another judicial office because the alleged crimes were committed before a judicial reform in 2000. Another 22 cases have resulted in convictions, while 64 cases have been either closed or temporarily suspended for various reasons.
Prosecutors said the vast majority of the sexual abuse crimes were committed by parish priests connected to an educational establishment. There are at least five cases where the heads of congregations or bishops in charge of a diocese are accused of cover-up or obstruction of an investigation.

More at: http://www.startribune.com/chile-ann...use/488941951/

[Swordsmyth]

Chilean authorities are raiding the headquarters of the Catholic Church's Episcopal Coverence as part of a wide-ranging probe into clerical sex abuse in the South American country.
The Tuesday raids are occurring in the most important building of the Chilean church in the capital of Santiago, say prosecutors. Authorities recently summoned the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to appear and testify about the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse which had been going on for decades.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...e-priest-probe

[phill4paul]

Is it as bad as what has been recently come to light in Pennsylvania? Why the hell would anyone leave their child alone in the presence of a Catholic clergy given all that has been exposed over the years?

‘They Hid It All’: Catholic Priests Abused 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania, Report Says

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/u...nsylvania.html


Time for some of them to go meet their maker.

[Swordsmyth]

Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignations of two more bishops in Chile, as fallout mounted from widespread sex abuse scandals there. Without citing reasons, the Vatican said the latest to leave their posts were the bishops of San Bartolome de Chillan, Monsignor Carlos Eduardo Pellegrin Barrera, and of San Felipe, Monsignor Cristian Enrique Contreras Molina.
Earlier this year, Chile's bishops submitted offers to resign en masse to Francis, in response to his belated crackdown on pedophile priests, other sex abuse by clergy there and Chilean church hierarchy's cover-ups of the wrongdoing.
Friday's announcement raised to seven the number of bishops so far whose resignations Francis has accepted in recent months.

More at: https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/cri...x-13246875.php

[Swordsmyth]

In a statement released by the Vatican on Saturday, it was announced that Pope Francis has expelled two retired Chilean clerics from the priesthood. The two men, Archbishop Emeritus Francisco José Cox Huneeus and Bishop Emeritus Marco Antonio Órdenes Fernández, were defrocked “as a consequence of manifest abuse of minors.”

More at: https://bigleaguepolitics.com/2-chil...-pope-francis/

[Swordsmyth]

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Chilean Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who had agreed to step down along with his country's bishops over sexual abuse cases and their cover-up, the Vatican said Saturday.Ezzati, archbishop of Santiago, is the seventh senior Chilean church official to resign over a scandal which the pope insists must be remedied.
To date, Ezzati, the Catholic Church's highest official in Chile, has maintained his right to silence although he has promised to cooperate with the investigation into his activities -- if the authorities first clear him, insisting he is innocent.
The latest move in the Vatican's attempts to deal with abuse within the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic Church comes just days after disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell received a jail term for sexually abusing two choirboys.
Pell, 77, and the former Vatican number three, has maintained his innocence and says he plans to appeal his conviction on five offences including oral rape and molestation of the boys in 1996-1997.
The decision over Ezzati also comes with Chilean media reporting that the nation's court of appeal had Friday confirmed he would face trial for not denouncing sexual abuse by three priests.
It also comes after Argentine Pope Francis last Monday rejected the resignation of French cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence earlier this month for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority. Barbarin has appealed.
The pontiff stated last month that "no abuse must ever be covered up, as has happened in the past" as the Church struggles to restore trust in its efforts to fight child abuse given the slew of abuse cases.
In October, Francis did, reluctantly, accept the resignation of US cardinal and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, accused of helping to cover up hundreds of child abuse cases in his former diocese.
And in February the pontiff defrocked former cardinal American Theodore McCarrick, 88, who a Vatican court found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager 50 years ago.
McCarrick became the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse.


https://news.yahoo.com/pope-accepts-...133638031.html