Chile's Justice Opens 148 Cases of Sexual Abuse in the Church | World

In the eye of the hurricane, since the beginning of 2018, the local church has been accused of badual abuse of badual abuse committed by religious over the course of several decades. Pope Francisco responded by expelling pedophile priests and accepting the resignations of several bishops who had been investigated for concealing criminals.

"In fact, at the national level, we formalized 148 investigations with 255 victims […] and four religious," said national prosecutor Jorge Abbott at a press conference.

He highlighted "important work". what the court has done so that "those who have been historically victims have had the opportunity to denounce the facts they were accused of … and this has opened the possibility of taking charge of the reparation".

The member intends to continue all investigations to determine the cases not yet prescribed, in which the courts can still convict the guilty parties.

In a previous report, the justice of the peace indicated that among the accused were priests, non-priests religious, deacons and a dozen lay people.

Abuse complaints come from across the country and from most congregations. Most of the charges refer to rapes perpetrated by priests for decades in colleges run by the Marist Congregation.