SALON

Tuesday, Oct 9, 2012 4:15 PM UTC

Chilean bishop suspected of abusing minors resigns

By

Topics: From the Wires,

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a Chilean bishop who is under investigation by the Vatican for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The resignation of Bishop Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, Chile, marks one of the few times that the Vatican has acknowledged publicly that it was investigating a bishop for sex abuse allegations. Advocates for clerical sex abuse victims have long complained that the Vatican has looked the other way when bishops have been accused of abuse or of covering it up.

The Vatican said Tuesday that the pope has accepted Ordenes’ resignation under the code of canon law that says a bishop must resign if he is sick or because some other “grave” reason makes him unsuitable for his job.

The 47-year-old Ordenes suffers from a liver ailment and has been seeking medical treatment. But the Vatican Embassy in Santiago confirmed Oct. 2 that it had been investigating Ordenes since April, and was offering psychological and other care to “those affected.”

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that the link between the resignation and the investigation “can be considered obvious.”

Ordenes is accused of abusing a 15-year-old altar boy in the northern city of Iquique. The former bishop admits he had “an imprudent act” with his accuser but says that he met him in 1999 when he was 17 and that they had a relationship when he was no longer underage.

“My conscience is clear before God and that’s what matters,” Ordenes told Chilean newspaper La Tercera in a recent interview.

His accuser, Rodrigo Pino, 30, says the abuse began when he was 15. At first, he said it was forced, but then they became lovers.

The Associated Press doesn’t normally name victims of alleged sexual abuse, but Pino has gone very public with his claims.

“We began a friendship because I showed him my interest in becoming a priest. I became very involved with him and then the abuses began,” Pino told Chilean ADN radio. “He would tell me that he was like a father to me and I was like his son, his lover, his brother and friend. … At first the abuse was forced because I was a boy who fell in love.”

The Vatican embassy is taking charge of the investigation because Ordenes is a bishop. Usually, a priest accused of sexually abusing children is investigated by his bishop, who then sends the case to the Vatican for review if he finds a semblance of truth to the accusations.

Lombardi said the fact that the case was now before the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles cases of clerics accused of the sexual abuse of minors, indicates that the investigation concerns the allegation that Ordenes abused Pino when he was underage.

A handful of U.S. bishops have resigned after facing sex abuse allegations. More recently, the then-Bishop of Bruges, Belgium, Roger Vangheluwe, quit in 2010 after admitting he had molested his nephew for years starting when he a young boy. The Vatican later sanctioned him. Earlier this year, the Vatican laicized a Canadian bishop who was convicted of child porn possession.

___

Associated Press writers Luis Andres Henao and Eva Vergara in Santiago contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

More Nicole Winfield.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations