COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports
written by Jamie Vaughan Johnson April 5, 2017
A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media.
So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.
“The responsibility for complying with the norms established in the decree of the Archdiocese for the protection of minors rests solely on my person and not on the archdiocese of Cali or the ecclesiastical entity in which I render my services. I therefore assume total responsibility,” says an excerpt of the document obtained by Blu Radio.
The document also implies that all compensation for sexually abused minors must be paid by the priest themselves.
The president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia and current Archbishop of the Andean city of Tunja, Monsignor Luis Augusto Castro, said that the document was drafted and presented at the national level but that each diocese decides whether to implement it or not.
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