A former priest and former adviser to the Archbishop of Santiago was found guilty on Wednesday of repeated allegations of sexual abuse and rape, the result of a 2018 scandal that involved several high-ranking members of the Catholic Church in Chile.
The Chilean prosecutor’s office said on Twitter that it had won the conviction of former priest Óscar Muñoz for “repeated crimes of rape, sexual abuse and repeated sexual abuse of underage victims”.
Muñoz’s case was one of the most famous in a wave of sexual abuse scandals that shook the structures of the Catholic Church after Pope Francis visited Chile in 2018.
The scandal led to the departure of the Archbishop of Santiago and other priests accused of having carried out abuses against minors or of having covered them up.
Chilean authorities also launched a wide-ranging investigation and raided several bishoprics. Muñoz was one of the first priests caught in the scandal.
Muñoz turned himself in to ecclesiastical authorities in 2018 and was expelled from clerical life a year later. He is now facing a criminal investigation, and the prosecutor’s office is asking for a prison sentence of 30 years and one day.
In May, a local court rejected the filing by former archbishop of Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, accused of covering up Muñoz’s crimes.
Source: CNN Brasil
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