Vatican official meets Chile abuse victim in New York

NEW YORK:

A high-profile victim of a disgraced paedophile priest said he was glad to finally be able to tell his story as the Vatican’s top abuse investigator began a probe into an alleged cover-up in Chile.

Pope Francis has come under fire for defending a bishop accused of orchestrating the cover-up.

“For the first time I feel they are listening to us,” Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of priest Fernando Karadima, told reporters in New York after a meeting that lasted about an hour and a half with Archbishop Charles Scicluna in a Manhattan church.

He added: “It was a long, emotionally difficult meeting, but I am very happy to have been able to speak with Mr Scicluna, they behaved incredibly well.”

Karadima was accused of abusing children in 2010, and convicted by the Vatican to a life of penitence.

Scicluna, who prosecuted cases involving predator priests for the Vatican’s doctrinal body from 2002 to 2012, is set to visit Chile from today as part of his investigation into Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up and even witnessing Karadima’s abuse which took place during the 1980s and 1990s.

Controversy over the 61-year-old Barros marred Pope Francis’ trip to Chile last month, when he hugged and defended the bishop.