Congregation of Sacred Hearts in Chile clarifies ties with accused priest Jorge Marín Pérez

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Chile issued a statement on March 14 clarifying its relationship with the priest Jorge Marín Pérez, a former member of the congregation who was denounced for abuse in 2018. The congregation said Marín was ordained a priest of the congregation in 1987.

On March 9, the Archdiocese of La Serena reported that a previous investigation into Fr. Marín “determined the verisimilitude of the complaint” concerning abuses involving “adults in conditions of vulnerability.” The archdiocese said a criminal administrative process was then initiated against Marín, and that he was suspended from the public exercise of the priestly ministry. These statements describe a complaint and an investigation; the source material does not report a criminal conviction.

According to the congregation’s communiqué, Marín left the congregation in January 2009 through a leave of absence, citing a personal and community crisis. The statement said he “maintained his intention to remain a priest eventually forming part of the diocesan clergy in some diocese of Chile.” It added that from 2011 he was in the process of “ad experimentum incardination” in the Archdiocese of La Serena, and that he was incardinated there in November 2016, at which point he ceased to be canonically religious in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts.

The congregation also said that in August 2018 it provided background information that “could contribute to the previous investigation” referred to by the Archbishopric of La Serena, and that it would continue to cooperate as necessary. It expressed shared “pain and concern” within the congregation, especially in its apostolic works and educational communities in which Father Marín had taken part. The statement said the congregation hoped that, if any crime or moral misconduct had occurred, the necessary measures would be taken, expressing conviction that “truth, justice and reparation to the victims must prevail over all.” Protecting people who cannot easily defend themselves is the concern at the center of the archdiocese’s finding (Psalm 82:3).

Separately, the source material reports that Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, denied knowing and giving money to the complainant in an alleged violation said to have occurred in the Cathedral of Santiago in 2015.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)