Chilean bishops and prosecutors signed an agreement to streamline criminal investigations of sexual abuse committed by members of the Catholic Church, the public ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
RELATED:
Chile: House of Reps to Vote on Judge Inquiry Commission
The cooperation agreement facilitates the exchange of information around cases involving the abuse of children and handicapped people, while protecting the identities of victims and witnesses.
Chile’s Bishops Conference, the church’s leadership arm in the South American nation, agreed to send evidence of any abuse-related crime to prosecutors within 24 hours provided state investigators protected their identities, according to the statement.
The Chilean Catholic Church was engulfed by scandal after a visit by the pope in January last year that brought to the surface a string of abuse allegations now being investigated by criminal prosecutors.
Last month, a lawyer who successfully sued the Archdiocese of Santiago said Chile’s Catholic Church ought to prepare itself for an onslaught of new civil suits from victims seeking compensation for past cases of sexual abuse.
Lawyer Juan Pablo Hermosilla said a Chilean court’s decision to force the country’s most influential archdiocese to pay his clients more than US$400,000 in damages opened the door for other “victims of abuse in church settings,” to seek financial compensation.
This was the first time Chile’s powerful Roman Catholic Church was required to pay damages related to an ongoing sex abuse scandal.