Chilean prosecutors probing 36 claims of Catholic Church sex abuse

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

July 23, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Cassandra Garrison

The Chilean civil authorities are investigating 36 accusations of sexual abuse against bishops, clerics and lay workers in the Roman Catholic Church, the national prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

The investigations are among 144 reports of sexual abuse implicating 158 Church workers made since 2000, it added in a statement.

The figures were released at a news conference in the capital Santiago by Luis Torres, the head of human rights and gender crime divisions for the Chilean national prosecutor’s office.

“We have met (with the Chilean Church) and sought to agree a coordinated approach that will help to advance these (live) cases,” he said.

The national prosecuting authority gathered the figures about complaints from around the country for the first time in a bid to take control of a persistent scandal over sexual abuse within the country’s Catholic.

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