translated from Spanish: Survivors of ecclesiastical abuse call for leaving ‘sleepy attitude’ to justice

The Network of Survivors of Ecclesiastical Abuse indignanly surveyed new details revealed in the investigation against Jesuit priest Renato Poblete and called on the state to take “reins” in the face of cases of abuse in the church . According to today, of his 22 female victims confirmed by the investigation of lawyer Waldo Bown, Poblete abused four minors, including a three-year-old girl, according to a report from the newspaper “La Tercera”. It is “strong” information, said Helmut Kramer, the organization’s spokesman, stating that “this news spread today by Network groups and Jesuit whistleblowers, prompting enormous outrage at the knowledge that this person, that this criminal, did not have the slightest limit versus nothing.” In that context, he accused that “within the Jesuit congregation, for years, there was a group of them that clearly formed a type of criminal organization that allowed many men and women to be abused.” “This is very serious, and it is time for Chilean Justice once and for all to stop maintaining this drowsy attitude, and take rein slays in the matter, but with clear and concrete facts; and it is time for the Chilean state to also take over this situation. There has been a violation of human rights here,” he said. Kramer himself is a whistleblower of abuses of Leonel Ibacache, who was recently expelled from the priesthood and the Society of Jesus. Meanwhile, Bown’s inquest also established that 15 members of the congregation knew of the attempts at kisses and touches and of apparent stable relations maintained by the deceased priest. Of these, five pointed to rumours or comments from third parties, while two said they had received direct testimony from the victims: one received express instructions from the victim not to disclose the information and the other, to the priest John Ochagavia, who made to the Jesuit provincial of the time, William Marshall, and his superior Patricio Cariola, but the complaint was not followed up. For José Andrés Murillo, of the Foundation for Trust and Whistleblower of Fernando Karadima, it was “could be said that obviously there are situations in which it was not reported”, being the authorities of the congregation “responsible for not reporting it accused and protect victims.” That, he argued, “talks about a cover-up,” which was not detected in Bown’s investigation. However, Murillo noted that “the ones in charge of investigating the cover-up are the Justice, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the courts”.

Original source in Spanish