COLOMBIA
Metro News (Canada)
By: Libardo Cardona The Associated Press Published on Wed Oct 07 2015
BOGOTA — Colombia’s Supreme Court has ordered a Roman Catholic diocese to pay about $220,000 to the families of two children molested by a priest. It would be the first time the church has paid a financial penalty in Colombia for abuse committed by one of its priests.
The priest, Luis Enrique Duque, is serving time for abusing two boys, then aged 7 and 8, in 2007 in a town northwest of Bogota. The Supreme Court decision, announced Thursday, upholds a 2011 lower court ruling that found the diocese liable and ordered that the money be distributed among the boys, their siblings and their parents.
The church had appealed, arguing that the abuse was a violation of Duque’s pastoral mission.
The Supreme Court decision affirms that the church is liable because priest took advantage of his religious role to commit his crimes.
“The diocese must right the wrong that the institution, via one of its agents, inflicted on the defendants,” the court wrote.
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