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Chileans Won't Chill

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By Kevin O'Brien
Protesters attempting to stop Juan Barros from being officially installed as their bishop.

Click here to see a BBC video of the near riot that erupted at the cathedral at Osorno, Chile where protesters tried to stop the ordination of their new bishop, Juan Barros.

Barros is implicated in a cover up of sexual abuse.

The background is this.  In a situation that's very similar to that of Fr. Maciel of the Legion of Christ, a Chilean priest, Fernando Karadima, played up to the wealthy conservative elements in Chilean Catholic society and established a kind of parallel Church, cultivating a group of followers, some of whom became priests - and one of whom is now the bishop of Osorno.  And all the while this Fr. Karadima was sexually abusing boys and young men.

He had trained five bishops and dozens of priests, acting as a spiritual leader and father figure for young men who later accused him of molesting them. (The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2011)

Complaints and red flags popped up for many years, but Karadima's bishop ignored them, covered for Karadima, and in effect facilitated his crimes.  The Vatican eventually sentenced Karadima to a "life or prayer and penance".

Karadima was not only the "mentor" of the new Bishop Barros, but Barros himself has been implicated in Karadima's crimes ...

While Barros himself is not accused of molestation, at least three credible victims say he was present when they were sexually molested by powerful Fr. Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and 90s.

 ***

I am becoming increasingly convinced that "a little leaven leavens the whole loaf", and that a "leaven of malice" and perversion, a self-serving evil that holds God and neighbor in contempt, has infected the Church.  Think about this.  How can stricter procedures on the administrative level reform the Church?  What sort of bureaucratic alterations will change the heart of a bishop who facilitates sex abuse, making this bishop suddenly realize that's the kind of thing a Christian should not be doing?

If you knew that someone under your authority and control was sexually abusing minors, would you aid and abet him, only changing your ways if new procedures forced you to?  And if you (sinful reader) would not do such a thing, why do your bishops?

The noisy chaos in the cathedral of Osorno was simply a glimpse into the silent chaos that's taken hold of our Church.


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