CHILE
National Catholic Reporter
October 22, 2018
by Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service
Survivors of abuse in Chile believed they had won a major victory when they heard a Chilean court recognized that the Archdiocese of Santiago prevented a thorough investigation into sexual abuses committed by a former priest, Fernando Karadima.
The lawsuit brought by survivors Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo was first dismissed five years ago.
A report by the Chilean newspaper La Tercera said the Chilean court of appeals overturned the lawsuit’s dismissal Oct.18 after new evidence obtained from raids conducted on the archdiocesan chancery proved that Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago, closed an investigation into Karadima. The court was said to have awarded 450 million pesos ($661,000) in compensation for damages to Karadima’s victims.
After a verdict was reported, Cruz, Hamilton and Murillo released a statement saying that although the path to the verdict was long and full of difficulties, “it was worth it.”
“The strategies of the Chilean church, especially Cardinals (Riccardo) Ezzati and Errazuriz in covering up abuses, protecting abusers and silencing victims has received a strong response from Chilean courts,” the survivors said.
However, in an Oct. 22 interview with Chilean news site El Mercurio, Miguel Vázquez, president of the court of appeals, said the entire matter was still under study, no verdict had been reached and the archdiocese had not been fined.
Vázquez did not explain why the court waited four days to deny La Tercera’s report about the survivors winning the lawsuit.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.