Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca

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Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca (born April 5, 1954 in Santiago de Chile ) is a Chilean clergyman and emeritus Roman Catholic bishop of Talca .

Life

Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca was ordained a priest on August 17, 1985 . As a pastor within the metropolis of Santiago, he first worked as a chaplain in Talagante , then became pastor in neighboring Mallarauco and later headed a parish in the Santiago district of Ñuñoa.

Pope John Paul II appointed him on March 11, 1995 titular bishop of Gummi in Proconsulari and auxiliary bishop in Santiago de Chile . The Archbishop of Santiago de Chile , Carlos Cardinal Oviedo OdeM , donated him episcopal ordination on May 7th of the same year ; Co-consecrators were Juan Francisco Cardinal Fresno , Senior Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, and Sergio Valech Aldunate , Auxiliary Bishop in Santiago de Chile.

John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Talca on December 12, 1996 , where he served until his discharge in 2018. At the same time he was ex officio Grand Chancellor of the Universidad Católica del Maule (UCM), based in Talca and Curicó .

Since his school days, Valenzuela has belonged to the circle around the influential priest Fernando Karadima , convicted of psychological and sexual abuse in 2011 , who brought several of his students and confidants to episcopal offices. Along with Juan Barros , the controversial Bishop of Osorno appointed in 2015 , and other members of this circle, he was accused by Karadima's victims of knowing about his actions.

In the spring of 2011, when Karadima's Vatican appeal process was not yet completed, the case of sexual abuse of a student by a Claretian priest in Curicó in the diocese of Talca became known. When there were accusations that Bishop Valenzuela had remained silent about the incidents, as in the Karadima case, Valenzuela decided to issue a press release in which he sharply condemned the abuse. After that, he was more distant about the behavior of his own spiritual leader than before. Most recently, he stated that it was his "mistake not to have noticed that bad things were going on". He refused to resign in April 2018 when Pope Francis gave up his originally defensive stance on the accusations and called the Chilean episcopate to a meeting in Rome , where Valenzuela was one of the 34 Chilean bishops who unanimously offered the Pope their resignation in May 2018 .

On June 28, 2018, Pope Francis accepted the early resignation of Bishop Horacio Valenzuela.

A few weeks later, in a documentary on the Chilean television channel Canal 13, members of a religious order who had resigned accused him of the abuses in the community of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan , a diocesan nursing congregation based in Molina in the diocese of Talca, under the control of the Bishop of Talca Years of knowing but not having done anything about it. He evaded a statement on the allegations. It was about massive physical and psychological exploitation of women religious and sexual abuse by priests and fellow sisters. In addition, there were financial irregularities and links with the Karadima circle in this community. The Apostolic Nunciature in Providencia under Nuncio Archbishop Ivo Scapolo , who is particularly connected to the community, was discredited by the allegations of ex-members. At the request of Horacio Valenzuela's successor, Auxiliary Bishop in Santiago de Chile and Apostolic Administrator of Talca Galo Fernández Villaseca , the Vatican Congregation for Religious sent a nun and a religious as Apostolic Visitators to the community's branch in Molina, where they reported the incidents and Investigate conditions in the Order for three months from January 2019.

literature

  • María Olivia Mönckeberg: Karadima. El señor de los infiernos. Debate, Random House Mondadori , Santiago de Chile 2011, ISBN 978-956-8410-54-4 , p. 438 f.
  • Juan Andrés Guzmán, Gustavo Villarrubia, Mónica González: Los secretos del imperio de Karadima. The investigación definitiva sobre el escándalo que remeció a la iglesia chilena. Catalonia, UDP , Santiago de Chile 2017 (first edition 2011), ISBN 978-956-324-105-1 (especially final chapter, online see web links).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obispo de Talca acusado de encubrimientos a Karadima: “Me equivoqué al no darme cuenta de que pasaban cosas malas”. In: El Desconcierto , April 16, 2018, accessed on March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Consequences of dealing with abuse. In: Domradio , June 28, 2018, accessed on March 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Rinuncia del Vescovo di Talca (Cile) e nomina dell'Amministratore Apostolico sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis della medesima diocesi. In: Daily Bulletin. Holy See Press Office , June 28, 2018, accessed June 28, 2018 (Italian).
  4. ↑ No se salvaron ni las monjas: religiosas denunciaron abusos sexuales de sacerdotes y superioras. In: El Mostrador , July 23, 2018, accessed on March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Consuelo Ferrer D .: El testimonio de una ex religiosa: "Fui abusada sexualmente por una monja y me hicieron callar". In: Emol , May 29, 2018, accessed March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ Abusos contra monjas: Vaticano envía misión investigadora a las Hermanas del Buen Samaritano. In: El Mostrador , December 6, 2018, accessed March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Hermanas del Buen Samaritano de Molina tendrán “acompañamiento” del Vaticano. In: Diario El Centro , December 7, 2018, accessed March 13, 2019 (Spanish).
  8. ↑ Systematic abuse of religious women - Vatican determined. In: Katholisch.de , December 7, 2018, accessed on March 13, 2019.
predecessor Office successor
Carlos González Cruchaga Bishop of Talca
1995-2018 		vacant
personal data
SURNAME Valenzuela Abarca, Horacio del Carmen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valenzuela, Horacio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean clergyman, emeritus Roman Catholic Bishop of Talca
DATE OF BIRTH April 5th 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Chile