Between Monday 13 and Wednesday 15 October, President Gabriel Boric will make an official visit to the Vatican, where, among other activities, he is set to meet with Pope Leo XIV (Monday 13, 6 a.m. Chile time).
In anticipation of the meeting with the Pontiff, Chile’s Survivors Network (Red de Sobrevivientes) sent a letter to President Boric urging the Holy See to place all existing records at the disposal of Chilean justice — in Chile, in the Vatican, or elsewhere — related to crimes of sexual and other forms of abuse, including psychological, spiritual, physical, and socioeconomic violence, committed by clergy, religious orders, lay leaders, and other Church actors against children and vulnerable people, regardless of when the offenses occurred.
The group stressed a key point: in 2018, at the Vatican’s behest, the Church effectively supplanted Chile’s judiciary by investigating and producing the ‘Scicluna–Bertomeu’ report, which was removed from the country as diplomatic mail and has remained secret. They argue that access to those files is the minimum dignity Chile deserves.
They also demanded that the Vatican formally report the above crimes to Chilean prosecutors and courts, noting that continued concealment under canon law cannot be invoked in Chile to withhold information from judicial authorities.
‘Failure to fulfill these civic duties amounts to an unlawful privilege, endorsed by the Vatican,’ the letter states. The message was later shared on the Survivors Network’s website.
The organization added that, with complaints and evidence placed before Chile’s justice system, it could ask the State to apply the corresponding Control de Convencionalidad (conventionality control) so these violations are treated as human rights abuses. Abuse of children and vulnerable adults within institutions constitutes torture, as defined by the United Nations.
Read the full letter HERE
El Ciudadano / Cover photo: EFE Agency (File)
