Chile Church Abuse ‘Secretism’
ROSARIO, Argentina – A little over two years after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a controversial Chilean bishop accused of covering up the sexual abuse of his mentor, a local network of clerical abuse survivors are alleging that neither civil nor Church authorities are making allegations public.
In an online map that is updated periodically, mostly recently on Wednesday, the Chilean Network of Clerical Sexual Abuse Survivors counts 41 new allegations against priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters in the past 6 months.
The map is now lists 360 public allegations of sexual abuse against a Church official in the country.
The map includes allegations both of abuse and allegations of cover up. The list includes some infamous cases, including Fernando Karadima and Cristián Precht, two former priests sanctioned by the Vatican and eventually removed from the priesthood by Pope Francis.
Also on the list are bishops who’ve been removed from their positions after Francis sent two Vatican investigators to look into the allegations of cover-up made against Bishop Juan Barros.
Barros, a protégé of Karadima, who was appointed to the southern diocese of Osorno by the Argentine pontiff in 2015, causing uproar among victims and their advocates.