Even as Pope Francis apologized for his failures in connection with Chile’s most famous case of clerical sex abuse, the pope and that country’s deeply discredited Catholic Church are under mounting pressure to address another, even bigger sex scandal.
The blooming scandal of the Marist Brothers, a congregation dedicated to education, has not yet drawn great attention worldwide — unlike allegations that a bishop covered up the crimes of a pedophile priest, Reverend Fernando Karadima.
Francis recently spent several days at his Vatican hotel in talks with three of Karadima’s victims; this week he is meeting with all of Chile’s bishops to address the crisis that has implicated several church leaders and religious orders.
Photo: AP
In the Marist case, the accusations of abuse are many.
“It’s a situation of systematic abuse where there are multiple abusers throughout time, within and outside the congregation,” said Juan Pablo Hermosilla, an attorney for some of the victims.
AT LEAST 20 CASES
He said that there at least 20 cases of abuse, but that there could be more.
“It’s an unprecedented situation,” he said.
Marists are religious brothers, not priests; they operate in dozens of countries around the world.
The scandal came to light in August last year, when the group revealed that at least 14 minors were abused from the 1970s until 2008 by Abel Perez, a brother who worked at two of the order’s schools.
Then it acknowledged that another Marist sexually abused five students.
The Marists opened a canonical investigation and launched legal action against Perez, but many Chileans were outraged when the order admitted that Perez had confessed in 2010 — seven years earlier.
Now, victims have filed a criminal complaint against three Catholic priests, a Capuchin brother and six Marists. In that complaint and in interviews, they have recounted numerous abusive encounters.
Jaime Concha said he was 12 years old when he was raped by Perez during a Boy Scout field trip in the 1970s.
He said Perez, a trip chaperone, took him to a tent after he fell ill, and gave him herbal tea mixed with alcohol.
“When I woke up in the middle of the night, he was taking advantage of me,” the 55-year-old physician said. “He had already raped me.”
However, he said Perez blamed the abuse on him, saying: “Don’t worry, I’ve already asked God to forgive your sin.”
Gonzalo Dezerega, 55, wept as he recounted how Perez raped him at the school’s locker rooms and showers. He was 10.
Perez has declined to speak with the media. Despite the order’s acknowledgment that he confessed, his lawyers continue to maintain his innocence.
The alleged abuses at the Alonso de Ercilla Institute in Chile often took place at the school’s basement, in the rooms of the Marist Brothers who lived in a residence connected to the school, or at spiritual retreats and scout field trips.
Concha said that he was abused by other Marists, as well as by priests. Jorge Franco said he was 15 when he was abused by one priest while another watched.
Concha and Franco said the current principal of the school, Jesus Perez — who was then in charge of pastoral activities, including masses, communion and confessions — once dragged them to the school basement, forced them to take off their clothes and don a tunic while they waited to take a “vocational test” to determine whether they were suited to become Marist brothers.
Then he delivered them to the priests who abused them, they said.
Jesus Perez rejected the accusations.
“I deny it completely...,” he said. “I know the [former students], I was here, I worked here, but they can’t accuse me of being complicit.”
Hector Villena, a spokesman for the congregation in Chile, said the Marists are not commenting on the allegations.
INVESTIGATION WIDENS
However, in an indication of just how broad the scandal is, the first priest the Marists appointed to conduct a preliminary investigation was removed after Chilean media reported he himself had been accused of sexual misdeeds.
The Chilean sex scandals have been a debacle for the pope. He visited the country in January, and before he boarded the papal plane to return to Rome, Francis said that until he saw proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up Karadima’s sex crimes, accusations against Barros were “all calumny.”
The pope’s remarks drew shock from Chileans and immediate rebuke from victims and advocates worldwide, prompting him to later send the Vatican’s sex crimes investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to investigate Barros.
After receiving Scicluna’s 2,300-page report, the pope backtracked and apologized for having discredited the victims. He invited Juan Carlos Cruz, a key whistle-blower in the case, and two other abuse survivors for several days of private and group meetings.
Cruz said the pope told him: “I was part of the problem. I caused this, and I apologize to you.”
Though originally tasked with investigating Barros, Scicluna also interviewed several of the Marist victims, a clear sign his mandate had expanded
Scicluna took testimony from victims of several other abusers and heard of cover-up and inaction by church leaders even against priests convicted of sex offenses by Chilean courts.
A Vatican statement issued on Saturday, ahead of Francis’ meeting with Chilean bishops, made clear that he had finally processed the victims’ complaints: It accused the Chilean hierarchy of “grave omissions” in caring for victims and of having covered up for abusers.
The influence of the Catholic Church in Chile has eroded after the string of scandals.
CHURCH TARRED
A recent survey by Latinobarometro, a respected regional polling firm, found that in 1995, an estimated 75 percent of Chileans were Catholic. That number plunged to 45 percent last year.
Chileans’ disenchantment with the church has also affected their views of the pope. Latinobarometro found that Chile had a lower esteem for history’s first Latin American pope than 18 other Central and South American countries.
Even among Chilean Catholics, only 42 percent approve of the job Francis is doing, compared with a regional average of 68 percent.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was