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Chilean lawmakers ask Pope to reverse bishop appointment due to sexual abuse allegations

Thursday, February 19th 2015 - 05:51 UTC
Full article 3 comments
Karadima, an influential octogenarian priest was found guilty in 2011 by the Vatican of committing sexual abuse and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. Karadima, an influential octogenarian priest was found guilty in 2011 by the Vatican of committing sexual abuse and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance.

Fifty-one members of the Chilean Parliament have signed a letter asking Pope Francis to reverse the appointment of the Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, due to allegations of covering up sexual abuse.

 Presented on Monday for delivery to Rome, the letter accuses the new bishop of the Osorno diocese, 940 kilometers south of Santiago, of covering up sexual abuses committed by the Chilean priest Fernando Karadima.

”The letter aims to condemn acts of sexual abuse in the Church, as the Pope has done (and) we believe that he must have sufficient information to review this nomination,” legislator Fidel Espinoza told Bio-Bio radio.

The appointment was announced by the Holy See on Jan. 10.

Karadima, an influential octogenarian priest was found guilty in 2011 by the Vatican of committing sexual abuse and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance.

Chilean justice authorities determined that Karadima sexually abused four parishioners between 1981 and 1995, when three of them (Juan Carlos Cruz, Jimmy Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo) were minors, although he can no longer be charged for the crime due to the statute of limitations.

In a letter sent Feb. 3 to the papal nuncio in Chile, Ivo Scapolo, Cruz, who resides in the United States, claimed that Barros threatened seminarians, covered up sexual abuses and broke the seal of confession.

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Categories: Politics, Chile.

Top Comments

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  • ChrisR

    So raping young boys raises its' ugly head again and the terrible retribution handed down by the RCC of “sentenced to a life of prayer and penance.” is nothing other than a joke and a terrible misguided action in respect of the victims whose lives are changed for the worse, forever.

    The action needed is to revoke permission for this supporter of sexual deviancy should not lie with the pope. As a man of god (don't even go there) he should have left the RCC when all this came about.

    As for Karadima he should be eunuched in the old manner: with luck he would bleed out and meet his 'master' in about eight minutes, and good riddance.

    Will the damnable RCC EVER get a grip on this, it seems not?

    Feb 19th, 2015 - 10:19 am 0
  • LEPRecon

    Surely the Chilean government should let him enter the country, then arrest him, put him on trial and then send him to prison for the rest of his life (if found guilty).

    That would be justice, wouldn't it? It would also get the truth out into the open and not hidden behind the Vatican's closed doors.

    Feb 19th, 2015 - 01:01 pm 0
  • ChrisR

    @ 2 LEPRecon
    “Bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros” already IS in Chile as I read it?

    Karadima is the boy shagger.

    Feb 19th, 2015 - 04:48 pm 0
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