Rector PUC: "The Church has confused the crime with what is a sin"

Ignacio Sánchez, the highest authority of the house of studies, approached this topic for the first time through an interview, convinced that, from the university, they had for mission to help find the changes who will forever eliminate the "culture of" abuse "exercised by some religious.

" The Catholic university lives, grows, contributes its Catholic identity to society, and of course everything that happens to the 39 Church comes to us, affects us, hurts us, commits us to see how we can take steps to solve this problem, "said Sánchez in an interview with La Tercera.

He acknowledges that the prosecutor's office has reported more than 160 accused priests and a large number of minors among the victims, then, he says, "it's very dramatic, it's very serious. Remember the situations that were known many years ago in Ireland, in Boston, in other parts of the world, where very serious situations had been recorded: badault, harbadment, abuse and a lot of damage, and on the other hand, poor management of the situation. "

" We must have here two concepts which, in my opinion, are very important and fundamental. First, the church and the responsible hierarchy have confused what is a crime with what is a sin. That is, I can commit a sin and repent and as a Catholic, I can feel liberated from this sin, but if I commit a crime, it is a matter of justice and he who repents when he commits a crime must go to prison Similarly, he regrets or does not repent, "he added.

Regarding the role of the PUC in all this, the Rector believes that "as we are part of the Church, we must ask ourselves the following question: could we have done more? In that sense, I believe that forgiveness is appropriate. We could have done more, for example by helping bishops make better decisions, we could do more by getting closer to potential victims. "

He also said that they knew nothing more than what the press knows." As teachers or as authorities, we did not have any problems. Information, we had no opportunity to handle these cases. But I come back to the beginning, to say that if we are part of the Church, we have to be self-critical. I believe that all Catholics, not only members of this institution, Catholics who are in a parish, of course, they condemn the facts and of course do not agree with the way they were managed but I would also ask these Catholics to say good, to what extent each Catholic in this country could have had a more critical reflection. "

To the question, he believes that the pope was not properly informed before his visit to Chile, believing that he was leaving the country to provide support.A few months later, Barros the demet of his bishop duties of Osorno. Sánchez thinks he could have obtained more information and from different sources.

"In the letter that he sends him- even, two words are important. First, he talks about the lack of complete information, and the second is that he says: I apologize for not having weighed the bottom. That is, I have the impression that he has committed a personal act. Perhaps he should have had more information from different sources, but he also acknowledges that the information he received does not rent it the same way as it does today. Now, there is a criticism. I believe that this pope gives us a beautiful example of humanity, "he said.