|
He Forced the Vatican to Investigate Sex Abuse. Now He’s Meeting With Pope Francis
By Laurie Goodstein
When I first interviewed Juan Carlos Cruz eight years ago, he was so ashamed about what had happened to him that he was not sure he wanted his name to be public. In his youth in Chile, he had been sexually abused by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, one of Chile’s most prominent priests. The Vatican eventually found the priest guilty and removed him from his post. This week, Mr. Cruz and two other victims of Father Karadima’s will stay at the Vatican in an extended visit with Pope Francis, who issued an extraordinary apology this month for “grave errors” in the handling of sexual abuse cases in Chile. Pope Francis had long defended a Chilean bishop who Father Karadima’s victims said had witnessed and covered up the abuse. After Francis accused the victims of “calumny,” his comments caused an international uproar, and he ordered an investigation. On seeing the results, he apologized to the three Karadima victims, Mr. Cruz, Dr. James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo. I spoke with Mr. Cruz, who now lives in Philadelphia, ahead of his trip. This interview has been edited and condensed. Do you accept Pope Francis’ apology? I don’t think that this is a P.R. exercise. I’m looking forward to speaking to him with an open heart, and hearing what he has to say. I am being told he wants me to be completely honest with him. What do you want to get across to him? Mostly, the pain and suffering of so many people, and some people have suffered a lot more than I have. I’ve suffered a lot. But I’ve had friends that have committed suicide. I have to make sure that our case is not treated as an isolated case. It feels like the heaviest backpack you’ve ever carried. For years now you’ve been seen as an opponent of the Church, especially in Chile, where you and your friends accused the bishops of a cover-up. But didn’t you join Father Karadima’s Catholic community in Santiago because you wanted to be a priest? When I joined I was 15, 16. My dad had just died. I was so vulnerable. And I was such a good kid. I wanted to change the world. Since I was a kid I wanted to be a priest. I wanted to die a martyr in Africa if that meant I was going to bring people to God. I had all these dreams. Why did you give that up? There was massive abuse. This man, Father Karadima, was abusing kids and young people from 1958 through 2010 or 11. I was there eight years, in this setting, under his spell. His spell! I know he was pretty powerful in the Chilean church and some of his disciples were made bishops. But you make it sound like he was more than just a regular priest. They called him “Santito,” the saint. Probably he would have been made a saint if people didn’t speak up about the abuse. People saved things that he would give them, because we all expected he was going to be made a saint. If he gave you a book and he signed it, you kept it as a relic. You have insisted that Bishop Juan Barros Madrid and other bishops in Chile who were mentored by Father Karadima were aware of the sexual abuse. But how do you know that they knew? They would witness when Karadima was kissing someone on the lips, or sticking his tongue in someone’s mouth. Or when we were in Karadima’s room, and he would say, now everybody out. Everybody knew what happened after that. But nobody ever spoke about it. How hard was it for you and Jimmy and Jose Andres to decide to sue and take the case public? I remember the first time we met the lawyer, Juan Pablo Hermosilla — I only knew he was a famous attorney who had fought Pinochet, the dictator. He said to me, “I want you to be very sure of what you’re doing, because you’re gay and they’re going to descend on you like you cannot imagine.” And that’s exactly what happened. It got to the point where [Chilean Cardinal] Errázuriz once said I might have liked being molested, so he wasn’t sure I was a victim. It turned out that being gay was the least of my sufferings, because the way they treated all of us was just horrific. And Cardinal Errázuriz — he’s one of the nine cardinals that Pope Francis chose to be on his council of nine advisers? Right. That’s what I want to ask the pope: How could you have George Pell [the Australian cardinal charged with sexual assault] and Francisco Errázuriz on your council? I’m sure there are other cardinals out there who are good people. You have 120 or something to choose from. It sounds like you’re angry at the pope. Are you? There’s been moments that I was. I don’t want to be angry at him and I understand that people make mistakes. But this is the most informed man in the world. That is a question mark for me. Why he didn’t act on it faster or understand the situation faster, and had to put everybody through such pain? Is it true that Pope Francis invited the three of you to stay with him in Casa Santa Marta? I’m going to be there a week. Probably sleeping three doors down from him. He wants to meet individually with each one of us, and he cleared his agenda Sunday to meet with me. But this encounter, as much as I am so honored, it won’t end up in anything if it doesn’t result in concrete actions. And firing a few bishops won’t do the trick. It sounds like you are expecting Pope Francis to fire Bishop Barros for failing to report Father Karadima’s abuse. Well, I’m assuming. What if he doesn’t? It will be a really bad thing. It will be really disappointing, and I mean the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had. Do you think you’re also looking to the pope to be a pastor to you? The pastor that Father Karadima failed to be? Probably. Because I have an image of the pope that no matter how shattered my image of him is, he’s the pope. I hope we all get some kind of healing out of this, for ourselves.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.