A list of the names of 26 priests accused of sexual assaults with minor victims was made public by the archdiocese of the city of Medellín. The data of the journalist's investigation are shocking.
The names of 26 priests at the center of an investigation into sexual assaults involving minor victims in Colombia have been made public by the archdiocese of the city of Medellín, following a judicial order.
The list, which contains the names of priests who were "reported" to the prosecutor's office from 1995 to 2019, was made public after a request was submitted to the court by journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos, who has systematically investigated the case of sexual crimes with victims in recent years children in the Colombian church.
"The majority of these priests (...) who raped children were suspended for a short period and then returned to their duties," commented the journalist on Saturday (27/08).
The archbishop of Medellín, Ricardo Tombon, assured that the church wanted to "show transparency (...) and demonstrate that it has no intention of a cover-up."
In a video uploaded to the archdiocese's Twitter account, Monsignor Tombon simultaneously denounced the "aggressive smear campaign" he says Mr. Barrientos is waging.
In 2019, Mr. Barrientos published the book "Dejad que los niños vengan a mí" (s.b. "Let the children come to me"), an explosive investigation into the sexual crimes covered up by the country's Roman Catholic church hierarchy, where Catholicism is the dominant religion.
Most of the crimes revealed in the book were committed in Antioch (in the northwest) and the archbishop of Medellin, the capital of this very conservative prefecture, allegedly protected a pedophile priest.
The Roman Catholic Church tried to block the publication of the book by taking legal action - to no avail.
In 2021, the journalist published a second investigation, under the title "Este es el cordero de Dios" (s.b. "Behold the lamb of God"), with which he revealed a pedophile ring in the diocese of Villavicencio, 120 kilometers southeast of capital Bogota. They involved 38 priests who were accused of sexual assaults and raping minors.
At least six priests have served prison terms for raping minors in the Latin American country.
