NEW YORK (NY)
Catholic News Service via CatholicPhilly.com
February 20, 2018
A former Chilean seminarian who accused a current bishop of abuse cover-up met with a Vatican investigator and said he finally felt he had been heard.
Juan Carlos Cruz met for nearly four hours Feb. 17 with Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, a longtime expert on clergy sex abuse. Cruz, who currently lives and works in Philadelphia, said that this is the first time he felt church officials had listened to how, as a seminarian, he was sexually abused by Father Fernando Karadima, a Chilean priest. Cruz maintains that now-Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile, witnessed some of the abuse.
In a statement to reporters outside of Manhattan’s Church of the Holy Name of Jesus Feb. 17, Cruz called his meeting “a good experience,” one he described as emotional and at times “very intense and very detailed.” He also said he thought it was “eye-opening” for the archbishop.
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