Leo Lyon Zagami –  After the mass resignation of the Chilean bishops that I wrote about earlier this year, today the Chilean national prosecutor has enrolled 158 members of the Catholic Church in the register of suspects for committing or covering-up sexual abuse against minors and adults.

This is a real catastrophe for the Vatican, obscuring the Catholic church once again, in the eyes of the world. Among the suspects of this massive child abuse case in Chile (either as protagonists or accomplices)  are a large number of bishops, priests and lay people connected to the Church, and these cases go back almost 60 years.The Chilean magistrates have, in fact, opened 144 lines of investigations on cases from 1960 until today, with 266 victims involved.  Of these victims, 178 were children or teenagers and 31 were adults. “The overwhelming majority of the reported facts correspond to sexual crimes committed by priests, parish priests or people associated with schools”, the prosecutor’s office in Chile wrote today. The age of victims was not established in 57 other cases. Continue reading →