LATIN AMERICA
GlobalPost
Will Carless on Oct 16, 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — One month ago, GlobalPost published a lengthy investigation into Catholic clergy who have been accused of sexual abuse in the United States or Europe, yet continue to work as priests in remote South American dioceses.
Two of the priests have been suspended from their posts since our reporting. Another appears to have moved to a different country, and an admitted child molester continues to work at a church in Peru. A fifth priest we investigated had already left the church for personal reasons when GlobalPost caught up with him.
We still haven’t received any response from either the Vatican or Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who heads up the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Here’s our one-month update on the status of the fugitive fathers featured in our report:
Jan Van Dael, in Fortaleza, Brazil
Status: Suspended
According to the Diocese of Fortaleza’s website, Belgian priest Jan Van Dael was suspended shortly after GlobalPost started asking questions about him on a reporting trip to Fortaleza earlier this year.
Miguel Brandao, the archdiocese’s pastoral secretary, confirmed in a phone interview that Van Dael has had his faculties removed and may no longer celebrate mass at local churches.
“He can attend church, just like any Catholic, but he cannot celebrate mass or participate in any way as a priest,” Brandao said. “He does not have any parish here in Fortaleza.”
Federico Fernandez Baeza, in Cartagena, Colombia
Status: Suspended
Colombian priest Federico Fernandez Baeza was working at a university in Cartagena when GlobalPost attempted to confront and film him earlier this year. Fernandez avoided our cameras, but we did speak with various university officials and filmed interviews with students in front of the university.
After GlobalPost revealed Fernandez’s past to university officials, the university immediately suspended him, said Hector Eduardo Lugo, the most senior Franciscan official in Colombia.
“We ordered him to leave the university,” Lugo said in a phone interview. “We didn’t know about his past. We weren’t his superiors at the time he returned to Colombia.”
Lugo said Fernandez is also currently being investigated internally by church lawyers in Colombia, who will, in turn, send a report to the Vatican. For the time being, Fernandez is being housed in a treatment facility for sick priests outside the city of Medellin, Lugo said.
GlobalPost called Fernandez at the treatment center. When a reporter introduced himself, the priest hung up the phone.
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