Leaked emails in Chile reveal new child sex abuse controversy

[forest444]

The Catholic Church has been drawn into a new scandal after senior clerics conspired to block a survivor from joining the Pope's sex abuse advisory board, accusing him (the survivor) of "lies."

Emails between the Archbishop of Santiago and his predecessor, leaked to Chile's top online newspaper El Mostrador, show how they blocked Juan Carlos Cruz from the Holy See's advisory board, set up by Pope Francis last year to help create a climate of greater accountability. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati and his predecessor Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz were both concerned that if details of the abuse emerged the Church would be damaged as a result. "I hope we can prevent lies from finding space between those who belong to the same church," Cardinal Ezzati wrote to Cardinal Errázuriz. The Santiago Archdiocese confirmed the leaked emails, from 2013 and 2014, were authentic.

Cardinal Errázuriz, one of nine core advisers to Pope Francis, has admitted in court testimony that he failed to act on several allegations because he believed them to be untrue. The best known such case was that of Santiago priest Fernando Karadima, who was first reported for "improper" behavior in 1984. The letter at the time was torn up.

Ten years later an investigation was opened by the Church; but was stopped three years by Cardinal Errázuriz. In 2010 a civil criminal complaint was filed by four victims but thrown out by the courts in Chile. Finally, in 2011, Karadima was found guilty of abusing minors by a Church investigation and prohibited from any public ministry ever again.

Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of abuse and a member of the Vatican Sex Abuse Advisory Board, had proposed Cruz. In an email to Associated Press she said: "Personally I am disgusted at the attitude displayed by these leaders in the church to the Pontifical Commission and to a survivor of abuse."

Cardinal Ezzati was among 16 new cardinals sworn in at the Vatican earlier this year. In his homily at the ceremony in Rome, Pope Francis said: "May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favoritism, and partiality."

At: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/leaked.emails.reveal.new.child.sex.abuse.controversy/64628.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. You'd think people in these positions would see their roles as more important,

and treat their appointments with the respect they merit, rather than personalizing it all, and living as if all that matters is them, personally.

How they can continue to be protected in one of the last places on earth one should expect to find criminals is one huge mystery.

[forest444]

2. In a word: impunity.

Much like today's corporate boardrooms, the clergy spent so many generations shielded from accountability that they lost their sense of right and wrong - or at least, many did.

Sunshine really is the best disinfectant.