Chilean cardinals discussed blocking abuse victim's speech, leaked emails show
September 14, 2015
A Chilean newspaper has published an email exchange between two cardinals, in which the prelates discussed plans to block a sex-abuse victim from speaking at a Vatican conference.
El Monstrador obtained the email messages in which Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, shared thoughts on how they might dissuade Vatican officials from inviting Juan Carlos Cruz to address the conference on sexual abuse. Cruz was one of the first people to bring accusations against Father Fernando Karadima, a prominent priest in Santiago who is the focus of Chile’s most sensational abuse charges. (Father Karadima was eventually ordered by the Vatican to spend the remainder of his life in penance and prayer.) Cruz has said that he reported the priest’s abuse several years before Cardinal Errazuriz finally took action.
Marie Collins, a member of the Vatican’s panel on sexual abuse, said that she was “disgusted” by the email exchange, and would bring up the topic at the next meeting of the board.
Cardinal Errazuriz, who is one of the nine members of the Council of Cardinals advising Pope Francis on Vatican reforms, has confessed that he failed to take action on some abuse charges because he was convinced that they were false.
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