Colombia’s Catholic Church on Saturday released the names of 26 priests investigated for alleged sexual abuse of children between 1995 and 2019.
The Diocese of Medellin has published a list of the names of the accused, in implementation of a court ruling in favor of journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos, who has been investigating for years an alleged network of clerics involved in child molestation.
“Most of these priests (…) were suspended for a short period and returned to work once more,” Barrientos said in a video clip on Saturday. Barrientos succeeded in persuading the magistrates to accept his request and forcing the Diocese of Medellin to publish the list.
The Public Prosecution Office, which did not comment on the investigations, received up to 14 complaints of abuse on Thursday, even though it was committed years ago, according to the document published by the church.
Monsignor Ricardo Toubon, Archbishop of Medellin, said the religious establishment wanted “to show transparency and a commitment to the truth, and there is no objective of cover-up”. In a video posted on the diocese’s Twitter account, he added that Barrientos is waging an “aggressive defamation campaign once morest the church.”
According to the journalist, the church revealed the names “because the Constitutional Court forced it to do so.”
And in 2019, Barrientos published a book called “Let the Children Come to Me,” which narrates an investigation into sexual abuse and cover-up once morest children within the Church in Colombia, where most people belong to the Roman Catholic community.
The church tried to take legal measures to stop publishing the book, but it did not succeed. At least six priests have served prison sentences following being found guilty of child rape in Colombia.
