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Victims of clergy abuse to protest, launch new NGO, outside Metropolitan Cathedral
Ending Clergy Abuse
May 5, 2019
https://bit.ly/2Lqb1vp
Groups will visually highlight number of abusive clergy still hidden in Argentine church
Groups estimate number of clergy offenders in Argentina is 1,302
Likely number of victims, they say, is more than 15,000
New victims will tell their stories
Survivors will flyer parishioners with information about reaching out to hidden victims
Who: 10-15 Argentine victims of sexual abuse by clergy, joined by leaders from Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) and BishopAccountability.org
Where: Metropolitan Cathedral, San Martín 27, C1004 CABA, Argentina
When: 10:00 am Sunday May 5
What: A new NGO of Argentine abuse victims, joined by two global groups, will hold a vigil Sunday to protest the church’s “systemic and widespread concealment” of child sexual abuse by Argentine priests.
Pointing to church abuse data disclosed in other countries, the groups say that only a small fraction of the actual number of clergy abusers in Argentina has been made public.
In Argentina, 96 priests, brothers and nuns have been publicly accused of child sexual abuse, according to new research published last week by BishopAccountability.org, the leading organization tracking the Catholic abuse crisis worldwide.
As shocking as they are, these public cases are just the “tip of the iceberg,” the groups say. Extrapolating from numbers of accused clergy released by church authorities in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and the United States, the groups estimate that the actual number of abusive clergy in Argentina is 1,302.
This means the likely number of victims in Argentina since 1950, based on the offense rate of typical adult sex abusers, is over 15,000.
In response to the crisis, Argentine survivors and activists are launching a new NGO, I.S.A.: Iglesia Sin Abusos.
Survivors are also demanding that the Concordat between the Argentine government and the Holy See be amended in cases of child sex crimes by clergy.
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