CHILE
Fox News
November 11, 2015
Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile – A prominent priest who has been punished for sex abuse by the Vatican proclaimed his innocence in court Wednesday, testifying in a case that three of his alleged victims brought against Chile’s Catholic Church.
Gray-haired and balding, the Rev. Fernando Karadima walked into court wearing a Roman collar and left holding rosary beads, flanked by police officers after being questioned for more than two hours.
Angry protesters waited outside. Some screamed “Pedophile!” and banged on the tinted windows of the dark SUV that drove him back to the convent where he has been living in isolation since the Vatican ordered him to a life of penance and prayer in 2011 for abusing young boys.
“I don’t recognize the abuses, with children. Never, ever,” Karadima testified, according to a court transcript obtained by The Associated Press. “I maintain my innocence … I never had sexual relations with those who accuse me.”
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