VATICAN CITY
Crux
By Inés San Martín
Vatican correspondent November 6, 2014
ROME — An Argentinian diocese announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has defrocked a priest who was criminally convicted of sexually abusing five minors in the country from 2000 to 2005.
The step is seen as significant not only as a sign of the pontiff’s overall resolve with regard to clerical abuse, but also because he’s faced criticism in the past for his response to charges against clergy in his native country.
José Mercau, the now ex-priest who’s serving a 14-year sentence on charges of abuse of minors, had been pastor of the St. John the Baptist Church in the San Isidro diocese on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. He also ran a home for destitute children.
Minors aged 11 to 14 went to the police in 2005 to denounce Mercau, after reporting him to a teacher. After an investigation, Mercau was charged with persistent corruption of minors and indecent assault and rape, and was released pending trial on the condition that he remain in a Benedictine monastery.
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