Chile’s Jesuits recognize massive sexual abuse in their community after investigation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Congregation of the Jesuits of Chile recognized that 64 people were victims of sexual abuse, 34 of them minors, by 11 clerics, according to a publication of the order itself on Wednesday that uncovered three cases that were not known by the public.

A total of 17 Jesuits were canonically investigated between 2005 and 2020. The Congregation demonstrated the responsibility of 11, with 34 victims who were minors, and 30 adults. The 2021 report of the Center for Abuse Prevention and Reparation (CPR) was published by the Society of Jesus.

Among the clergy investigated, one name stands out – that of the deceased ex-leader of the Congregation itself, Renato Poblete, who sexually abused four children and 19 adults from the 1960s to the year 2000.

Poblete, who died in 2010 and was denounced for the first time in 2019, was chaplain for more than two decades at Hogar de Cristo, one of the largest charitable foundations in the country, even obtaining a government award for his social service trajectory.

The three cases uncovered with the publication of this report involved sexual crimes that left a total of 3 victims and were perpetrated by three Jesuits: Br. Carlos Berríos, who died in 2012; José Tomás Gatica Barros, who resigned in 2012, and Eduardo Tampe, who is in a “supervision plan” of the institution.

Two other priests are currently part of this type of program, which involves psychological help and restrictive measures such as the prohibition of approaching children.

Of the rest of the priests accused, five are deceased, and three are no longer part of the Society of Jesus.

“Of the total number of victims, contact has been made with most of them, and 49 reparation programs have been allowed (…) 31 of them with an agreement for economic reparation,” the report stated.

Since 2010, when the influential priest Fernando Karadima was denounced and a year later condemned by the Vatican as guilty of sexual abuse of girls or boys, the Chilean Church has received dozens of complaints of abuse.

According to data from the Prosecutor’s Office, in 2019, there were 166 open cases for sexual crimes by the clergy to 248 victims, of which 131 were minors.