Catholic Priest Apologizes over Stolen Children

By Amelia Wade
Santiago Times
May 23, 2014

http://santiagotimes.cl/catholic-priest-apologizes-stolen-children/

Most of the cases of irregular adoptions date from the 1970s and 1980s, but some were reported in 2005. Photo by Kenny Louie / Flickr

Chile’s child protection agency is working with detectives to determine how many children were involved in a network within the Catholic church which put babies up for adoption in the 1970s and 1980s without their parents’ knowledge, telling the biological mothers that their child had died.

A website has also been set up to help alleged victims — in just over a month more than 1,150 potential victims have come forward, 700 of which are children looking for their parents.

The stolen children network was uncovered by the Centro de Investigacion Periodistica (Ciper) which published a series of articles last month. The stories said in some cases the mothers were persuaded that giving up their child was the best choice for them, but in others they were told the baby was stillborn or had died soon after childbirth. The cases took place during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet and it is not known how many children were stolen.

Most of the cases now being investigated date from the 1970s and 1980s, but some were reported in 2005.

Last week, police announced they were investigating 12 cases of possible irregular adoptions after the National Youth Service (Sename) lodged a complaint. In two of the cases being looked into, Priest Gerardo Joannon from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (SSCC), is believed to be involved.

In an interview with Ciper, Joannon said he had helped in around four or five cases and had worked with doctors to try to prevent backstreet abortions. Chile is one of the few countries in the world where abortion is illegal in all cases.

“In those days, a girl who was a single mother was looked on very badly,” he said in the interview.

At the weekend, Joannon, sent a letter to the El Mercurio newspaper in which he apologized for the irregular adoptions. He said during his years of pastoral work, he supported families through difficult times and that he would co-operate with the investigation.

Joannon said that in most cases, the parents of the woman who gave birth helped carry out the “irregular process” and made their daughters believe their child was stillborn. However, there were also occasions when the mother themselves did not want to raise their child.

“The reason for my actions was invariably to protect life. However, people suffering is something that hits me and I deeply sympathize with them. I apologize if some of my actions generated and continue to generate pain for those affected for so many years,” he said in the letter.

Joannon also said there was at least 10 doctors who he worked with. The Ciper articles also found there were several other priests are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but have they were not named.

Last week following the revelations of the network, Sename said eight new cases had come to light from people in their thirties who knew they were adopted but suspected there was something “irregular” about how it happened. The head of Sename, Marcela Labrana, appealed for anyone with information or who helped the network to come forward and tell authorities what they knew.

Meanwhile, a website has been set up for potential victims to help them establish if they were one of the stolen babies and to track down their birth parents. At the moment the nosbuscamos.cl website’s objective is to create a DNA database for credible allegations.

Arturo Fellay, spokesman for the website and husband of Constanza del Rio, one of the alleged victims of illegal adoptions, said they had been in discussions with lawyers and that they had already been contacted by three laboratories who wanted to help.

By Amelia Wade (wade@santiagotimes.cl

Copyright 2014 – The Santiago Times