Diocese of Temuco opts for transparency strategy: reveals cases of priests involved in sexual abuse

by El Mostrador

Diocese of Temuco opts for transparency strategy: reveals cases of priests involved in sexual abuse:

Through a statement, the bishopric referred to the perpetual expiatory penalties imposed on the priest Pablo Walter Isler Venegas, among whom is established "the prohibition to publicly exercise the priestly ministry and to work pastorally with adolescents and young people."

Through a communiqué, the Diocese of Temuco made public the three most infamous cases of priests involved in cases of sexual abuse against minors.

This after a report from El Mostrador on those episodes that have "crunch" to said diocese and of which the victims have criticized the tendency to the protection that the bishop of said area, Héctor Vargas, deployed in favor of the perpetrators.

A week ago,  El Mostrador  published " The double morality of Bishop Vargas" , a note that referred not only to the non-compliance of the bishop's celibacy, but also to the cases of abuse, which Vargas acknowledged, but in which he denied that there were "protective nets or a cover-up cloak".

One of the most notorious cases was that of priest Pablo Walter Isler Venegas , suspended from the priestly exercise forever. The diocesan, who was also episcopal vicar of Illapel and was a priest of Temuco, after completing a canonical process for sexual abuse of minors, received a clear sanction from Rome: the suspension. He can not publicly exercise the ministry or hold masses, he can not approach children, let alone have a foundation in the name of the Church. This in perpetuity.

In that  communiqué , the diocese referred to the expiatory penalties for the priest, among which is established "the prohibition to publicly exercise the priestly ministry and to work pastorally with adolescents and young people."

Another of the sanctions established was the "definitive prohibition of residing within the territory of the Diocese of San José de Temuco and of visiting without previous and express authorization of the Ordinary, the parishes of Lautaro, Imperial and Traiguén".

"Priest Pablo Walter Isler Venegas is ordered to faithfully fulfill, with religious assent of the understanding and will, the canonical sanctions indicated in this decree," it is indicated.

The public statement states that the process began in 2011, during the previous administration, when they received the first complaints.

"The priest Pablo Walter Isler Venegas, since 2003 was outside the Diocese of Temuco, carrying out various pastoral experiences in the Illapel Prelature," he explains.

The diocese also unveiled two other similar cases that equally involve priests. This is Juan Carlos Mercado Elgueta, who in the middle of 2013, after the previous investigation as a result of the complaint of sexual abuse of minors, submitted his resignation to the priestly ministry, and José Vicente Bastías Ñanco, who is currently facing a process canonical penalty for sexual abuse of minors, according to what is established with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and is temporarily suspended from the public exercise of the ministry.

"We take advantage of reiterating the firm disposition of the diocesan Bishop to assume the challenges that Pope Francis has asked for, in the sense of ensuring healthy, safe and reliable spaces in the Church for children and young people," the statement ends.