VATICAN PROBER UNCOVERS NEW SEX ABUSE CHARGES AGAINST MARIST, SALESIAN, FRANCISCAN ORDERS
SANTIAGO, CHILE— Vatican sex abuse prober, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, has uncovered testimony from Chilean victims of abusers in the Marist Brothers, Salesian and Franciscan religious orders.
Scicluna, who was sent to investigate claims that Chilean priests knew of clerical sex abuses and hid them, wrapped up his mission to Chile on Thursday and headed to Rome to brief the pope.
Scicluna wrapped up his probe as Australian prosecutors withdrew on Friday one of multiple historical sexual offence charges against Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell ahead of his committal hearing next week.
New charges
Scicluna did not reveal details of the charges against the unnamedMarist, Salesian and Franciscan clerics, but 55-year-old Chilean physician Jaime Concha said he made the accusations against two Marist brothers.
Concha accused Marist Brothers Abel Perez and Jose Monasterio of abusing him in the 1970s and 1980s.
Perez was expelled from the community after being investigated for abuse by the church, and is currently being prosecuted for abuse of boys in his care. Monasterio has since died.
In 2010, Perez confessed to continually abusing boys over three decades in schools belonging to the order, but the Marist only filed a complaint against Perez last August, seven years after his confession.
Perez was charged of sexually abusing 14 minors in two schools belonging to the order. The order removed him and transferred him to a community residence in Peru, local media reported.
Scicluna probe
The Scicluna probe heightened global expectations that something has to change, and that the problem isn’t just about Bishop Juan Barros and Francis’ 2015 decision to appoint him as bishop of Osorno, Chile over the objections of many Chilean bishops.
Barros had been a top lieutenant to Chile’s most prominent predator priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, but he denies vic- tims’ accusations that he witnessed and ignored their abuse.
Victims say the Barros affair is merely emblematic of a culture of covering up for abusers, giving them minimal sanctions or moving them around instead of prosecuting them, ecclesiastically and civilly.
“This isn’t just about Bishop Barros. This is much bigger,” historian and author Marcial Sanchez told CNN Chile on Thursday. “We can’t continue sweeping the dirt under the carpet.”
Juan Carlos Cruz, a Karadima victim, said the fact that Scicluna and [another Vatican abuse expert Jordi] Bertomeu chose to interview victims completely unrelated to the Barros case “shows that this goes way beyond Juan Barros.”
“I think that if the Pope doesn’t do anything, and focuses only on Barros, it will not go over well since the Chilean church needs an extreme cleansing,” he said.
Scicluna and Bertolomeu will return to Rome just days after Francis met with cardinals and discussed ways to speed up the processing of cases at the Vatican’s backlogged Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
One proposal that has been discussed for years is to create regional tribunals around the world to hear cases.
One of cardinals in attendance was Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, who has acknowledged he shelved the initial investigation into Karadima because he didn’t believe the victims.
Pell case
Meanwhile in Melbourne, prosecutors withdrew one of the charges against the 76-year-old Pell, who has taken leave to fight the charges of sexual abuse against him.
The exact details and nature of the accusations have not been made public, other than they involve “multiple complainants.”
The Melbourne Herald Sun said one of the charges was withdrawn the Melbourne Magistrates Court because the complainant had died.
Pell, who denies all the claims, faces a crucial four-week hearing starting in Melbourne on Monday to determine if he stands trial.