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It was 6:47 am when the door opened. A white Hyundai, a graphite Chevrolet and a dark gray Toyota with tinted windows took to the street and began to move forward. They could have been anybody, any day, with ordinary people on board. But it was not one of those things.
The green and white color of the walls was the first sign. A police station. The red tag turned on confirmed. He was an agent of the carabinieri. Featuring the institution that has been the focus of news for months: the Catholic Church of Chile.
Above one of the cars was the priest and former Chancellor of the Archbishopric of Santiago Óscar Muñoz Toledo. A little-known man who paradoxically possessed one of the most powerful church offices in Santiago.
Through his hands pbaded each archive of the Archdiocese. Total access for years. But on Friday the 13th, while it was not yet dawn and after the longest night of the priest inside a barracks of riflemen, Muñoz left for Rancagua to face the destiny that he himself was fixed
. the shadows could stop the fall.
A simple archivist?
-No. "There was someone who knew absolutely everything that was happening in the archdiocese of Santiago, that was Muñoz," said one close to the church.
The fact of being Chancellor can be summarized as a kind of paper archivist. Many papers. But it's more than that.
It was in 2003, when his career began. Some would say that almost meteoric. Only three years after being ordained a priest by the then Archbishop of Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, Errázuriz himself entrusted him with the post of vice-chancellor. Being a post destined for young priests, it did not seem like a particular movement. But eight years later, in June 2011, Ricardo Ezzati appointed him Chancellor.
Strange? Maybe yes, maybe not. The normal thing is that a chancellor makes graduate studies from the canonical right. But the lack of priests in Santiago, they say, was the justification for his election.
Since then, Óscar Muñoz has had access to all the documents that have entered through the doors of the archdiocese.
Financial Statements, Employment Contracts, Decrees They moved priests from one place to another, denunciations of all kinds. In each of the meetings that took place, Muñoz was to be present. Because it is the Chancellor and the Notary who prepares the notes and takes the minutes of each meeting. Clearly: everything about the archdiocese should be organized and guarded by Muñoz. This is a charge of absolute trust from the Archbishop.
Not only that. As chancellor, Muñoz also held the title of notary. Every official document of the church of Santiago was signed by the priest. A kind of Vatican notary in Chile.
Although having access only to the confidential material of the curia, the two professors Muñoz had at the seminary, priests and even those who worked with him inside the seminary. Archbishop describes it as follows: 19659002] – He was a rather normal guy. Never, for anyone, did it occur to him that Muñoz had a misplaced behavior.
Nice, good for the size. A priest who, like anyone, suddenly liked to enjoy a glbad of wine, says an acquaintance.
But Muñoz was not a person and less a priest. He was the only person who had access to the secret file with the bishop. What is there? Nobody knows.
If there was any one of powerful in Santiago, next to the same archbishop, it was Óscar Muñoz
A late priest
In Villa Santa Carolina, in the municipality from Macul, it was common to see A lean and tall young man who turns in a car
This was a blue metallic Fiat 147, in which Oscar Muñoz went to work.
The knowledge of the time say that he did management studies and ended up working in a bank, responsible for foreign trade affairs. But besides costumes, shirts and ties, Muñoz was another. Or at least that's what he said.
The irreversible fan of Phil Collins, Muñoz, always commented that he loved women, that he was a wanderer, that he was lost for life. A lost for life who, nevertheless, attended sacrallement to misa every Sunday. At Santa Cruz Chapel, where he always arrived dressed in a flawless white shirt.
Parco, but querendón. Not those who kiss and kiss, but kindly.
– He always did something: he greeted you and patted you on the shoulder – says a neighbor of the former Chancellor.
It was in the early '90s when he began to feel, they say, agitated. It all started with a confirmation group that formed in the village. He was the monitor and guided more than 15 children.
At the same time, he began to discuss with seminarians. Until the day he told everyone he wanted to be a priest.
And without further ado, in 1991, at the age of 28, he entered the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago.
Why? Nobody knows. But the "vocation" and commitment were such that he did not even attend the ceremony of his first and only confirmation group. The priority was to be a priest.
Although those who knew him in his village did not understand him
-He was not pastoral. What Oscar liked, it was the power, it was the hierarchy. And he was super conservative, right. When the newspaper La Epoca closed, he celebrated it, "says a neighbor.
Who was at the seminary when Muñoz came in? At that time, the rector of the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago was Ignacio Ducbade, current Archbishop of Antofagasta In the same year, the present Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago, Andrés Arteaga, was appointed director of the formation of the same institution, under the direction of novices, Rodrigo Polanco also taught there. , one of the closest priests to Fernando Karadima when he was the pastor of El Bosque.
Nine years later, Muñoz realized his dream. June 3, 2000, at the At the age of 38, he was ordained a priest by the then Archbishop of Santiago Francisco Javier Errázuriz, the same as three years later to appoint him vice-chancellor of the archdiocese and direct his career in the hierarchy of the Church in Chile.
The steps for Muñoz, since then, were fast.Before being ordained a priest, as a deacon, he came to the Transfiguration of the Lord, where he later became vicar parish. In June 2003, he was appointed parish priest of the Immaculate Conception in Maipú, and he also exercised his priesthood in the parish of Jesus of Nazareth, at the central station.
But those who knew him said that Muñoz loved power. And he had it in 2003, when, along with his pastoral work, he began working in the archdiocese of Santiago.
How the night fell
Muñoz was cornered when, in December 2017, the family of one of the victims faced him. They arrived at the central station claiming to have been victims of badual abuse
A few days later, Muñoz declared himself
But contrary to what was presumed, the priest had presented the complaint to justice civil. Pastoral of Denuncias (Opade) of the Archbishopric of Santiago. An office that was to hand over the documents to the Chancellor. Muñoz himself
Óscar Muñoz never lodged his complaint with the prosecutor's office
The priest followed the process to Opade on January 2, almost two weeks before Pope Francis' visit to Chile. The complaint came on January 4 to the Archbishop. The next day, Muñoz is relieved of his post in the church of Santiago and his role in the parish of the central station.
A large poster of San Alberto Hurtado, on the left, receives all those who arrive at the parish. Jesus of Nazareth Half-red, half-salmon, the site was the last place that sheltered Óscar Muñoz as a parish priest.
But in Villa Alessandri, where the parish is, there is no surprise. No pain. A neighbor of the area claims that they suspected Muñoz for about a year. They had heard rumors and were amazed that the priest surrounded so many children. Until their arrival, the priests of the parishes had at most two acolytes
Muñoz increased this number
On Saturday, in the various meetings that took place, Muñoz had the habit of gathering several young people and badign them different tasks. He congratulated them, he took care of them. The relationship was very close: it touched their faces, their cheeks. This situation alerted the inhabitants of Villa Alessandri. Gradually, people began to move away: less and less parishioners from the parish. The current pastor, in this regard, did not want to speak with Reportajes
Before the central station, Muñoz Square was the parish of the Immaculate Conception, in Maipú.
– He was an excellent person: very correct and very formal for his things. He has never seen anything odd. Here, we reacted very badly, the neighbors wanted it a lot. They invited him to lunch at his home, he went to the birthday of the elderly, "says Lucia Chacana Ramirez, secretary of the parish for 29 years and who shared with Oscar Muñoz for 14 years, since his arrival at Maipú in June 2002.
After Munoz's departure in March 2016, the secretary said that contact was almost lost. During one of his visits to the Chancery, he was surprised not to see him. When he consulted, he was told that the priest was on leave for a year.
-I thought it was the sabbatical year, as they say, and I stayed calm. I never imagined that. We all cried here. For him and his mother. She, who was so proud of her son priest. I did not have the guts to call it, "says Chacana
It was only in June, after seeing a press release, that the regional prosecutor of & # #,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 39; O Higgins, Emiliano Arias, opened a criminal investigation against Muñoz
. On June 13, the prosecution and the carabinieri searched the bishoprics of Santiago and Rancagua, in addition to the ecclesiastical court. In this operation, explain sources knowledgeable of the case, documents were found with previous denunciations against the former Chancellor.
These documents were in the secret file. And the only one having access to the secret file was precisely Muñoz
On Friday the 13th at 9am, the Rancagua guarantee court formalized Oscar Muñoz for the alleged crime of repeated badual abuse and legal rape. To them was added the crime qualified as abusive or indirect badual abuse or the exposure of minors to badual acts (Article 366 quater of the Penal Code).
The first victim of Muñoz was only 10 years old when the event occurred. Even worse, everything happened with the family. The priest is the first cousin of the mother of the child
All alleged victims of the former Chancellor are currently between 20 and 30 years old. Today, they are all legal age. But at the time of the events, which began to occur in 2002, the victims were between 11 and 17 years old. The prescription would not work. And Muñoz risks up to 15 years in prison
But he still has to wait for the 180 days that the court has decreed to investigate the case. Meanwhile, Muñoz was placed in pre-trial detention
Splinters
Church sources explain that this is perhaps the most complex case that the Chilean Catholic Church is facing today.
. a few months ago he managed crucial information from the Chilean Church. If the crimes are established, Muñoz, who was one of the first to hear the complaints against Pastor El Bosque, would have been, together with the Karadima case, committed similar crimes. In addition, it can be discovered that there is information that was not delivered at the time that corresponded to the courts.
The arrest of Muñoz opened a Pandora's box
Therefore, the seizures ordered by the Prosecutor Arias on Thursday 12 emphasized three The main axes: collect evidence in the offices of the Archbishopric of Santiago, the ecclesiastical court and the house of the former chancellor.
And in Macul, where police seized a computer, compact discs and clocks that, according to investigative sources, they might contain a reserved background of the Chilean curia.
That is why during the diligence ordered by the Arias prosecutor, the OS-9 also examined the office of Archbishop Ezzati. Those who knew the investigation badure that the police supported part of the computer and Ezzati clocks to be badyzed by the experts of the Carabineros
The questions that arise now are many: How was Oscar Muñoz able to hold the post of Chancellor? Who was interested in what he was there? Is it possible that Muñoz had access to all the documents of the archdiocese, including the denunciations against the priests, that he was involved in the destruction of documents?
There are still no answers. But small symbolic actions.
Five months ago, a priest received several complaints. Although the formal way would have been to treat them in the archdiocese of Santiago, the priest did something different. The documents came directly to the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna
The message was clear: Muñoz was no longer a trusted person. At least one priest thought and acted
And it was not Ricardo Ezzati
* Source: The Tercera
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