Colombia's church liable for its priests

Colombia's church liable for its priests

Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro © Escher (Adveniat)

Colombia's church liable for its priests

The church of the San Pedro Claver Shrine in Cartagena, Colombia © Andreas Drouve (KNA)

The judiciary in Colombia has handed down a landmark ruling, holding the country's Catholic Church liable for abuse cases involving its priests. The president of the Colombian Bishops' Conference reacted indignantly to the ruling.

Tunja's Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro did not quite know where to direct his anger at the court ruling. For this reason, the president of the Colombian Bishops' Conference immediately took the entire court to task: "This is simply an insult against the Church," Castro declared.

Judgment sees entire Catholic Church of Colombia in the responsibility

At ie is legal and financial responsibility for abuse cases involving Catholic clergy in the South American country. Castros does not deny that there was sexual abuse by church employees – but these acts were the individual misconduct of individual clergy and not imputable to the Catholic Church as an institution. "How many teachers, for example, have assaulted students, and never has the Ministry of Education or the government been prosecuted because of it?" argued Castro.

However, Colombia's Supreme Court sees things differently. In a precedent-setting ruling, it ruled this week on a Catholic priest who had molested two boys. In November 2008, Luis Enrique Duque was sentenced to 18 years in prison for this crime. In the meantime, the clergyman, who had escaped in the meantime, is serving his prison sentence in Medellin.

On top of that, Duque should also pay damages equivalent to about 150.000 euros to the family of the victims. But the priest did not have such a fortune. The church also refused to pay for the damage.

Church liable for its employee

Now the Colombian judiciary clarified in the last instance that the church must be liable for its employee. The court argued that a priest enjoys a special social trust because of his work for the church. Because he abused that trust as a representative of the church, he said, the church is liable.

The case, which received national attention, sparked an emotional debate and raised questions about whether or not institutional abuse exists in the Catholic Church. No, says Jaime Arrubla Paucar, former president of the Supreme Court, in his interpretation of the ruling. Even after this court decision, the church does not have to be liable for abuse cases of individual priests. This would always have to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Jose Gregorio Hernandez, former president of the interrogation court, sees the church very much in the responsibility. He knows cases in which she had wanted to cover up abuse and hush it up. Therefore, he said, it was logical that the judiciary had responded to this ie.

Church sees offenses as individual acts

Precisely such liability as an institution, however, is rejected by numerous bishops in Colombia. In an interview with Caracol radio, Pereira's bishop, Rigoberto Corredor, said the responsibility for the acts must be borne by the perpetrators themselves. It was a matter of individual crimes committed by individuals and therefore had to be punished individually.

At present there are 18 known cases of clergymen in Colombia who are accused of serious child abuse. Sometimes church representatives are said to have tried to conceal what happened. In the pending court cases, claims for damages are now also threatened.

The abuse scandals that have severely shaken Colombia's church have by no means all been dealt with – neither legally nor socio-politically. The judgement takes the institution still more strongly into the responsibility. She will have to look much more carefully in the selection of her future personnel. Because at least at the moment it looks like the church in Colombia is liable for its priests.

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Christina Cherry
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