Photo: REUTERS / copyright
He was the most famous sexual predator in Chile and many know him simply by his surname: Karadima.
Fernando Karadima died at 90 years the night of Sunday in the nursing home in Santiago where he lived, local media and international agencies confirmed this Monday.
He was expelled from the priesthood by Pope Francis, an “exceptional decision” taken by the Vatican for the abuse of minors committed by the religious.
- Chile: Fernando Karadima is expelled from the priesthood by Pope Francis for abuse of minors
In 2011 the Holy See itself had declared Fernando Karadima guilty of abusesrepeated sexual and psychological reasons when he was a parish priest in a church in the capital, Santiago.
He was sentenced to a life of penance and prayer, and was prohibited having contact with former parishioners or performing any ecclesiastical act publicly.
The Chilean justice investigated Karadima but did not go to prison as the accusations against him dated back to the decade of the 80 and the first half of the 90, so those crimes prescribed.
From prestige to scandal
Before being at the center of the largest sexual abuse scandal in Chilean history, Fernando Karadima was one of the most prestigious religious in the country.
Was considered a spiritual guide by many of the parishioners who attended their masses in the parish of El Bosque, in the affluent commune of Providencia.
The writer Ariel Dorfman recalled in a chronicle for the newspaper Clarín a meeting he had with the prelate during his youth.
“I felt attracted by his soft magnetism – he treated me as if I was the center of the universe, as if he cared about my well-being and my dilemmas- au nthat at the same time uneasy about something in the brilliance of his persuasive eyes and the sensual joy with which his lips pronounced each syllable ”, he wrote.
Ordained priest in 1958, Karadima had been appointed titular pastor of the Church of the Sacred Corazón de Jesús, in Avenida El Bosque, in 1985, and it worked there until 2006.
Their Masses and retreats had a high attendance among the most influential sectors of the Chilean community.
Hence the surprise it caused when the prelate was accused by some parishioners and former priests of El Bosque of having committed abuses.
The first complaints were filed with the Church in 2004 but were kept hidden and the issue was not made public until several years later.
It was in 2010 when one of the complainants, physician James Hamilton , appeared on a television program called Zero Tolerance and made a public complaint .
That was what led to the canonical investigation and the opening of a criminal trial.
“El Santo”
The journalist and academic Maria Olivia Monckeberg wrote the biography “Karadima, the lord of the underworld” (2011, Random House) about him.
Monckeberg told BBC Mundo in 2018 that Karadima’s power resided in the ecclesiastical network she had woven.
“He trained about 40 priests and four bishops , and this made him a very powerful man ”, he pointed out.
How many abuses did she commit? “It is not known, because many of the victims have not spoken,” explained Monckeberg, who estimates that some of those 07 priests trained by Karadima could have suffered abuse.
“He took these young children from well-to-do families, who were often going through critical situations in their family life -for example the death of a parent or the separation of parents-, and took them in “, said the author.
“ There was a terrible deification of the character. They called him El santo or El santito. It was an almost sect thought “, he revealed.
” Afternoon “
The complaints of Hamilton and other victims who spoke publicly, such as Juan Carlos Cruz and José Andrés Murillo, led to Karadima being considered one of the worst sexual predators in the history of Chile.
The unusual decision of the Vatican to expel him priesthood reflected or the seriousness of his crimes .
Some of his victims thanked the pope your decision.
However, there are those, like Monckeberg, who consider that the reaction of the Holy See was too slow.
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