Pope confronts new chapter in abuse scandal
SANTIAGO, Chile — Even as Pope Francis apologized for his failures in 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, Rev. 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.
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,” Juan Pablo Hermosilla, an attorney for some of the victims told the Associated Press. He said 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 last August, 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 told the AP. “He had already raped me.” But 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 influence of the Catholic Church in Chile has eroded after the string of scandals. 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 in 2017.