Dear Readers,
Irish Mirror, recently published an article re the conviction of Legionary of Christ, Fr. John O'Reilly in Chile.
A Chilean blog claims that Fr. O'Reilly was whisked out of Ireland in 85 because of similar problems. The blogger knows this to have been a favorite Maciel-Legion strategy but cannot vow this was the case with Fr. John without further corroboration.
Irish-born priest John O'Reilly guilty of child sexual abuse in Chile
The court found that O'Reilly, who moved to Chile from Ireland in 1985, had abused a pre-teen girl at a religious school in Santiago
TDTV
John O'Reilly
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 fro
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