BONN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle
>>Victims of abuse in Peru ask the Pope to do justice
[Note: Includes a brief video interview via Skype with Darío Menor Torres.]
Activistas y víctimas de países como México, Ecuador o Alemania pidieron que los clérigos denunciados sean remitidos “a la justicia común”.
Activistas y víctimas de abusos sexuales afirmaron este miércoles (17.01.2018) en Lima que el papa Francisco debe “remitir a la justicia común, para que sean sancionados como corresponde”, a los clérigos católicos denunciados por casos de este tipo.
“La Iglesia no puede ser responsable por personas que, en cualquier tipo de circunstancias, son unos abusadores”, afirmó la ecuatoriana Sara Oviedo, exvicepresidenta del Comité de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas (ONU).
Oviedo participó en una exposición ante la prensa realizada por integrantes del grupo TAP o The Accountability Proyect (Proyecto de rendición de cuentas), un día antes del inicio de una visita oficial y apostólica del papa Francisco a Perú. En la presentación estuvieron el mexicano Alberto Athié, el británico Peter Saunders, el alemán Matthias Katsch y los norteamericanos Tim Law, Denisse Buchanan y Anne Barrett Doyle.
[Google Translation: Activists and victims of countries like Mexico, Ecuador or Germany asked that the denounced clerics be referred “to the common justice”.
Activists and victims of sexual abuse affirmed this Wednesday (17.01.2018) in Lima that Pope Francis must “refer to the common justice, so that they are punished as appropriate”, to the Catholic clerics denounced by cases of this type.
“The Church can not be responsible for people who, in any type of circumstances, are abusers,” said Ecuadorian Sara Oviedo, former vice president of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN).
Oviedo participated in an exhibition before the press made by members of the TAP group or The Accountability Project, a day before the beginning of an official and apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Peru. In the presentation were the Mexican Alberto Athié, the British Peter Saunders, the German Matthias Katsch and the North Americans Tim Law, Denisse Buchanan and Anne Barrett Doyle.
The ex-UN official said that the victims of abuse also ask to “separate from their positions clerics who are known, or suspect, to have committed some type of abuse.” He also considered that the canon law should be modified so that these cases can no longer be considered “only as a moral violation” and that the church should find mechanisms to denounce these crimes, as well as address them in the formation of priests and education of children in reporting mechanisms.
Athié, a former priest who discovered one of the first cases of abuse perpetrated in Mexico by the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel, said that the victims’ denunciations “have met with a wall” in the Catholic Church. “You have to confront the sayings, the facts and the gestures,” he said before emphasizing that “forgiveness is not enough, that is a very important value, but first there is the truth.”
Matthias Katsch, co-founder of an association of victims of child abuse, said he participates in these activities “as a survivor”, since he was abused in a Jesuit school. “We have the opportunity to show people that they have been victims in the past that we have opportunities today,” he said before pointing out that the Catholic Church has a “responsibility” as a “global institution that trains children”.
Cases like those of the Sodalicio organization
Barret Doyle added, meanwhile, that in Peru they have to deepen investigations of cases such as those of the Catholic organization Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, which came to light after the publication in 2015 of the book “Mitad monjes, mitad soldados”, of the Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz. He considered that, in addition to the intervention of Sodalicio announced by the Pope last week, he could ask that the founder of that group, Luis Figari, who is currently staying in Rome, be extradited to Peru.
The activist remarked that the denunciations about the Legionaries of Christ, in Mexico; Karadima, in Chile, or Sodalicio, in Peru, “these are cases of victims with economic means”. “We have not yet heard of cases of poor victims, and the poor are especially vulnerable,” he concluded.]
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