Victims sue Chilean archbishop over sexual abuse by ex-priest

CHILE
Santiago Times

WEDNESDAY, 04 SEPTEMBER 2013
WRITTEN BY MIMI YAGOUB

The three victims of sexual abuse by ex-priest Fernando Karadima have filed a civil suit against the Archbishop of Santiago, calling for the Church to assume responsibility.

The three men who were sexually abused between 1955 and 1980 by Fernando Karadima of the El Bosque Parish in Las Condes, Santiago, have filed a suit against Archbishop of Santiago Ricardo Ezzati demanding economic compensation for the crimes committed against them.

The men in question are Dr. James Hamilton, journalist Juan Carlos Cruz and philosopher José Andrés Murillo and are represented by lawyer Juan Pablo Hermosilla. They say that the suit is directed towards the archbishop in an attempt to make the Church assume responsibility as an institution that acted negligently during the cases that were brought forward against Karadima.

“We’re trying to break the cornerstone of sexual abuse — silence — and this is done through what we are doing now,” José Murillo told Radio Universidad de Chile. “Every time there is abuse there is damage done, and if the abuse was committed by someone who belongs to an institution … there is an institutional responsibility, and we want this to be established.”

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