Living saint accused of sex abuse as Catholic scandal spreads

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SANTIAGO: The Revered Fernando Karadima is one of Chile's most influential priests. Some even call him a living saint, who for half a century trained dozens of priests and helped mould thousands of young Catholics from Santiago's elite.

Now four men who were once devoted followers have filed a criminal complaint alleging that Father Karadima, now 80, sexually abused them in secret for years. One man said he had reported the abuse to Father Karadima's superiors in Santiago seven years ago, but no action was taken.

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All four men filed complaints last year with the archdiocesan tribunal and, receiving no response, spoke publicly for the first time this week. But the allegations have been largely met not with anger at Father Karadima but with outrage at the accusers by many of his parishioners, a prominent conservative politician and church officials.

They say a man so respected over so much time could not possibly have abused his followers.

But as the news broke this week, a cardinal confirmed the church had been secretly investigating claims of sexual abuse against the priest. The case, in one of Latin America's most staunchly Catholic countries, comes as the Catholic Church worldwide is under growing scrutiny over how it handles accusations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

In the US, a plaintiff has brought a lawsuit against Pope Benedict and the Holy See over a priest who molested deaf boys for two decades at a boarding school. Documents show the Vatican was told a year earlier than previously thought about the case involving the Reverend Lawrence Murphy, who admitted molesting 34 children at St John's School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin.

The Vatican had previously said the first notice it had about Father Murphy was when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict - received a letter about the case in 1996 from the archbishop of Milwaukee, but court documents show the plaintiff wrote two letters to the Vatican's secretary of state in 1995.

In Belgium, a bishop has resigned over a sex abuse case and a church committee is inquiring into paedophilia.

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Tag: court-documents

http://www.smh.com.au/world/living-sa...-tj3j.html