They demand justice for the deaf children mistreated in the Próvolo: "The Pope did nothing"

Activists who are claims these days to Pope Francis "zero tolerance" towards abusive ecclesiastical religious On Monday, they demanded the speedy conclusion of the trial of religious accused of having raped about sixty deaf children, a case that caused an uproar. Members of the Argentine organization Church without abuse and the internationals End clergy abuse (Ending the abuse of the clergy) and BishopAccountability.org (Responsibility of Bishops) met victims of abuse of the Antonio Próvolo Institute in the province of Mendoza, who deplored the lack of justice in the face of the opprobrium of which they claim to have been victims at the hands of two priests, who are among the main defendants.

At the meeting a few days after a demonstration in Buenos Aires, the plaintiffs and their relatives shared their painful experiences. regretted a judicial process of more than two years and asked that deaf persons be treated in a special way after the closure of the hearing impaired center. The meeting was held as part of a campaign launched by activists and asking Jorge Bergoglio to visit Argentina, a country he had wished to visit since his election as Pope in 2013, in order to guarantee the application of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. measures against these crimes and does not protect those who commit them.

Abuse at the Próvolo Institute: erotic letters hidden by an imputed priest

The case broke out in November 2016 and violence was allegedly committed by two priests, a nun and two civilians at about twenty students from the country. Antonio Próvolo Institute, located in Lujan de Cuyo, which led to the closure of the creation of the Obra San José Association. The victims claim "faster process" that has suffered "ups and downs" because of the dilatory strategies of the pursued lawyers, said Juan Manuel Lavado, the Xumek Argentina Association, which defends several plaintiffs and joined the claims of other organizations, according to the AP agency.

In the case, there are more than a dozen defendants as perpetrators, participants and masters of various badual crimes. The Italian priest Nicola Corradi and the priest Horacio Corbacho are accused of alleged violations and abuses that they deny having committed. Both are at the preliminary hearing stage, where, if the prosecutor has ample evidence, he can negotiate with the defendants recognition of their guilt and sentence without trial. The name Corradi appeared in 2009 when dozens of deaf Italians from the Antonio Próvolo Institute in Verona stated that they had been abused by some twenty religious since the 1950s.

"Secret reports"

"If the church was worried about avoiding abuse, these kids would have never been abused," he said Monday. Anne Barret Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org. Pope Francis and Benedict knew that Corradi was there, the Archdiocese of Mendoza also knew that Corradi had been accused and denounced in Italy. But they never took him out of the institute. "

The activist asked that the document that the Archbishop of Mendoza gave to the Pope during the aforementioned visit ad limina apostolarum (at the threshold of the Basilica of the Apostles) be made public. "We know the document that will be presented, it is a document that contains information on different aspects of the Church, but we also know that there are secret reports on cases of abuse. The pope himself should make this document public "stressed the woman.

Up to 2017, 66 priests, nuns and other religious accused since 2001 of abusing dozens of people, according to the BishopAccountability.org database. In many cases, there have been no canonical or judicial investigations.

As a result, the Horacio Corbacho, 57, the altar boy Jorge Bordón (50 years old) and the former gardener of the place, Armando Gómez (46 years old). The cause of abuse of deaf and hard of hearing children in Próvolo also includes 14 defendants, three of whom were under house arrest: the Italian priest Nicolás Corradi (82); Japanese nun Kumiko (42) and former legal representative Graciela Pascual. José Luis Ojeda, 41, a former Próvolo employee, was fired.

Francisco "has a huge responsibility"

The list of attackers was published on the Internet and specified that Corradi was in Argentina. In addition, his name reappeared in a letter to Francisco in 2014 in which Italian victims pointed out that Corradi was in Argentina since the 1980s. However, he remained in charge of the Mendoza Deaf Institute until the end of 2016, the denunciations were made public. At that time, the archdiocese of Mendoza, on which the institution depends, issued a statement in which he declared: "We are saddened and outraged by these events, we express our solidarity and our closeness to the victims of the events making the subject of the complaint ".

In Argentina, there is no official register of judicial complaints about clergy abuse. According to BishopAccountability.org, 96 priests, brothers and sisters in Argentina have been publicly charged with badual abuse of children.

Barret-Doyle said that these organizations and others wanted to accompany the clamor because the justice of the victims of Próvolo is rendered. "Pope Francis owes them an apology for their complicity and silence, the Italian victims have been warning for years that Corradi and others were working with children in Argentina." The Pope did nothing ", did he declare. He also claimed that Francisco should investigate the Archbishop of Mendoza, Marcelo Colombo, for refusing to "provide prosecutors with information about the Próvolo badailants."

"If the Pope can not put an end to the abuses and dissimulation in Argentina, he can not do it anywhere else, where he has the most power, influence, symbolically the country the most important in the fight against abuse in the world, "said Peter Isely, founding member of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA). Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishopaccountability.org, said that while in other countries, thousands of cases of abuse have been detected, in Argentina there is virtually no such case. investigation or prosecution "in this respect. "The biggest battle for zero tolerance takes place in Argentina", Isely, also a victim of badual abuse in the church.

Provolo case: why Pope Francis was aware of the abuses

"We are here to ask the pope to return to Argentina, to take charge of the situation and to shed light on what is happening, and never has a pope who has badumed as such returned to his country. that he was in post. Why does not Francisco come to Argentina? I firmly believe that the reason it does not do this is because of the abuses because it has not been involved in the Próvolo case nor in any of the cases reported in the country . The Próvolo is the most important and most emblematic case of those who have occurred, "said Isely, who also said that Francisco" had a huge responsibility towards the survivors of Argentina because is their country ".

S.D.