Fernando Karadima has died, the priest convicted of pedophilia whose case revealed a culture of abuse in the Chilean Church

Karadima was kicked out of the Church by Francisco and never set foot in jail because his crimes required it. (Photo: AFP / Vladimir Rodas).

Chilean ex-priest Fernando Karadima, convicted in 2011 by the Vatican for sexual abuse, died at 90. The so-called “Karadima affair” has uncovered a abuse scandal to minors perpetrated by many ecclesiastics of the Church of Chile, and ended with the resignation en bloc of 34 bishops.

Karadima died Sunday evening at the San Juan de Dios retirement home in Santiago from “bronchopneumonia, kidney failure, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure,” according to the death certificate.

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His case came to light in 2010 when the victims Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and José Andrés Murillo they recounted the abuse they suffered in a TV report.

In 2011, Karadima was condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Holy See to “a life of prayer and penance” for sexual abuse of minors in the 1980s and 1990s and was prohibited from having contact with former parishioners or performing any ecclesiastical act in public.

It was finally excluded from the priesthood by the Vatican in 2018, the heaviest sentence applied in the Catholic Church. The drastic step was taken after a controversial trip by Francisco to Chile and after the country’s 34 bishops tendered their resignations in an unprecedented event in the world.

The “elite priest”

Karadima was not just any priest, but had a huge influence in the Chilean Church. Known as the “Elite Priest”, Karadima has forged over the years links with high places political and economic policies of Chile of the parish of Santiago de The forest, located in an affluent district of the capital

Karadima trained many religious, including five bishops, and served as confessor and adviser to public figures in Chile, one of the most Catholic countries in the region.

Chilean justice investigated him but as the charges against him dated back to the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, determined that the crimes had prescribed, despite the validity of the victims’ testimonies.

Yet two years ago he ordained the local church pay compensation of $ 450,000 for “moral damage” three of its victims: Doctor James Hamilton, the philosopher José Andrés Murillo and the journalist Juan Carlos Cruz, who embody the defense of victims of sexual abuse committed within the Chilean Church.

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The court ruling found that the local Church had been negligent in not investigating the abuse allegations and credited the “psychological damage” suffered by Hamilton, Murillo and Cruz, the three plaintiffs who opened in 2010 with their complaint Pandora’s Box which brought out the audience to light up the “Culture of abuse” in the Chilean Church which has been recognized by Pope Francis.

“Fernando Karadima, a former Catholic priest who sexually and spiritually abused many people, has passed away, including us. Everything we had to say about Karadima has been said. It was one more link in this culture of perversion and concealment in the Church, ”the three plaintiffs said in a public statement.

“We are at peace and we are only motivated to continue to fight so that these crimes do not happen again and for so many people who lived it and who still do not have justice ”, adds the press release.

In August 2019, pushed by this affair, the law declaring “Imprescriptible” sex crimes against minors under the age of 18.

According to official figures, until 2019 more than 200 Chilean Church members investigated for more than 150 cases of sexual abuse, while more than 240 victims have been identified, including 123 minors.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Santiago said they continued to “fight so that these crimes do not happen again and for so many people who have lived through them and who still do not have justice”. “We are closely accompanying the surviving victims and their families, asking the merciful God to heal the pain caused to all those who have suffered,” they added.