Catholic News Agency
08 January 2015
.- The House of Representatives in Chile has passed a resolution stripping Father John O’Reilly, of the Legion of Christ of his honorary Chilean nationality by a vote of 96-5 after he was sentenced to four years of house arrest for sexual abuse.
The measure will now go before the Chilean Senate for final approval.
The Chilean congress grants honorary nationality to individuals through a legislative action, and can use the same mechanism to rescind it.
The proposal to rescind the Irish-born priest’s honorary nationality was brought before the floor of the Congress Nov. 12, after he was sentenced to four years of house arrest for sexually abusing a minor.
The case against Fr. O’Reilly, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning, began July 24, 2012, when a lawyer representing the Cumbres School filed a complaint with the Legionaries of Christ. Fr. O’Reilly turned himself in to authorities, and the school also filed charges with civil authorities.
The following day, the Legionaries opened a canonical investigation into the case.
Before the Legionaries concluded their investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked that the case be turned over to an outside priest, who finished his investigation in September 2013.
While the case is currently under study in Rome, Fr. O’Reilly is not allowed to exercise any public ministry.
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Irish-born priest to serve no jail time in Chile child sex abuse case
yahoo! News
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – An Irish-born priest, found guilty last month of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in Santiago, will avoid jail time under a sentence handed down on Tuesday.
A judge sentenced John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, to four years and a day of “supervised liberty” for abusing the pre-teen girl at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.
O’Reilly, who over the years befriended many powerful conservative businessmen and politicians in Chile, will not be confined at home nor be required to periodically check in with a parole officer. He will be free to travel out of the country.
He will have to attend semi-regular rehabilitation therapy sessions, and his name will be appear on a national pedophile registry intended to keep him from working with children.
Prosecutors had requested that he be sent to prison for 10 years.
The school where the abuse took place is part of the network of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order whose founder, Mexican Father Marcial Maciel, was found by a Vatican investigation to be a fraud and pedophile who had fathered several children.
The Catholic church retains a strong influence in conservative Chile, but cases like this of abuse and other crimes by priests have shaken confidence in recent years.
In 2011, powerful Chilean priest Fernando Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of abusing teenage boys over many years. The criminal case against him collapsed and the church ordered him to live a life of prayer and banned him from celebrating public mass.
Another priest is under investigation for the forced adoption of babies after telling single mothers their infants had died.
Argentine-born Pope Francis has vowed zero tolerance of clerics who abuse minors, after scandals in a number of countries over many years.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman)
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Chile: Irish priest gets probation for sex abuse
An Irish-born Chilean priest has been sentenced to four years of probation after sexually abusing a minor while he was chaplain at a school in Santiago.
A court in the Chilean capital also banned the Rev. John O’Reilly from any job near children. Prosecutors had asked for a 10-year prison sentence.
O’Reilly was found guilty last month. The court said he committed the abuse while he was the spiritual guide at the school. Relatives had accused the priest of molesting two pre-teen girls between 2007 and 2011. The court absolved him in one of the cases.
O’Reilly arrived in Chile in the mid-1980s and was granted Chilean citizenship in 2008. He was not present during Tuesday’s sentencing.
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Irish-born Chilean priest found guilty of child sex abuse
Reuters
SANTIAGO
Irish priest John O’Reilly (C, back to camera) of the Legionaries of Christ conservative Roman Catholic order and his two lawyers (L and R) attend his hearing at a court in Santiago August 27, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Ivan Alvarado/Files
(Reuters) – An Irish-born Chilean priest was found guilty on Wednesday of sexually abusing a child in his care at a religious school in the capital, Santiago.
The court found that John O’Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, had abused the pre-teen girl behind closed doors at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.
“The tribunal has established beyond all reasonable doubt that … O’Reilly resolved to carry out actions of a sexual nature via body contact with a school student,” said Judge Maria Teresa Barrientos.
O’Reilly, who denied the charges, will be sentenced next month. Prosecutors have requested that he be sent to prison for 10 years.
The school where the abuse took place is part of the network of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order whose founder was revealed to be a fraud and pedophile who had fathered several children.
The Catholic church retains a strong influence in conservative Chile, but cases like this of abuse and other crimes by priests have shaken confidence in recent years.
In 2011, powerful priest Fernando Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of abusing teenage boys over many years. The criminal case against him collapsed and the church ordered him to live a life of prayer and banned him from celebrating public mass.
Another priest is under investigation for the forced adoption of babies after telling single mothers their infants had died.
Argentine-born Pope Francis has vowed zero tolerance of clerics who abuse minors, after scandals in a number of countries over many years.
The authority of the church in O’Reilly’s native Ireland, in particular, has been rocked by investigations into past clerical sex abuse and state-abetted cover-ups at Catholic-run schools and institutions, labeled places of fear and neglect in a 2009 official report.
(Reporting by Rosalba O’Brien and Antonio de la Jara; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Strange or what? A ‘Tut. Tut. Bad Boy” for sexual abuse of pre-teen girl: no jail time! Imagine – a guilty verdict and not a single day in jail.
And now this: a vote to strip him of his “honorary” Chilean nationality?
Confusing?