Pope Appoints Ezzati As Cardinal As Old Scandals Resurface in Chile

By Joel Keep
Santiago Times
February 24, 2014

http://santiagotimes.cl/pope-appoints-ezzati-cardinal-old-scandals-resurface-chile/

Pope Francis presents Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati with his scarlet-red birettas, symbol of office, on Saturday. Photo via Official Vatican Network / Facebook

Santiago’s outgoing Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati was among 16 new cardinals sworn in by papal authorities at a ceremony in the Vatican on Saturday despite being implicated in an ongoing inquiry into sexual abuse committed by a member of the Chilean clergy, as another disgraced priest accused of child molestation was spotted breaching canonical restrictions.

Ezzati joins 19 new “princes of the church,” who will be granted the authority to vote on the election of future popes in papal conclaves.

Speaking at a mass held at St. Peter’s basilica at the Vatican, Pope Francis urged the newly elevated clergymen to avoid engaging in cronyism and misconduct, as the Catholic Church attempts to recover from scandals relating to child sex abuse and financial largesse.

“May all of us avoid, and help others to avoid, habits and ways of acting typical of a court: intrigue, gossip, cliques, favouritism and partiality,” Pope Francis said.

But as the pope is looking to a new “humble” future for the church, his appointment came as old scandals reemerged in Chile involving Santiago’s outgoing cardinal.

Monsenor Ezzati, the country’s most senior ecclesiastical figure, was accused of obstructing the course of justice in an inquiry focusing on late Salesian priest Rimsky Rojas, who is posthumously being investigated for alleged child sex abuse committed during the 1980s.

An alleged victim of Rojas’ abuse, Marcelo Vargas, filed the complaint against Ezzati in Valdivia on Wednesday.

The complaint alleges that Ezzati hid information from authorities regarding abuse committed by Rojas that took place while he was working as provincial inspector of the Instituto Salesiano de Valdivia (ISV).

Vargas, who was a teenager while a member of Rojas’ flock, claims the priest molested him while he was a student at the Salesian institute.

“It first occurred in his office, then the residence of the priests. He used to cut our hair — we were alone with him at the time. In that bedroom there was never anyone else present,” Vargas testified in 2011.

Rojas, who committed suicide that year, is also suspected of involvement in the case of another student, Ricardo Harex Gonzalez, who disappeared in 2001 in Punta Arenas and is presumed dead. Rojas was director of the Liceo de San Jose, where Harex was studying.

Harex remains missing, with supporters of the disappeared student claiming that police officers have obstructed the investigation in order to protect clergymen.

The complaint against Ezzati comes after another priest found to be involved in child sex abuse, Fernando Karadima, was photographed presiding over a mass despite being explicitly prohibited from doing so by Vatican authorities.

Karadima, who has been barred from practicing “any acts of ministry” by the Vatican after a canonical investigation found him guilty of committing sexual assault on minors, was spotted conducting mass for a number of followers inside the Siervas de Jesus de la Caridad chapel in Providencia on Dec. 4, 2013.

The photograph of Karadima was taken by a local lawyer who passed the image to a former flock member and abuse victim of Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz.

Cruz uploaded the image to Twitter on Wednesday, and the photograph was later published on a number of local media outlets.