Page 4 - HOH

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 26 November 2019
Priests guilty of abusing deaf children at Argentine school

MENDOZA, Argentina (AP) mented publicly on the
— Two priests were found case, though in 2017, the
guilty on Monday of sexu- Vatican sent two Argentine
ally abusing deaf children priests to investigate what
at a Catholic-run school in happened in Mendoza.
Argentina, a case that has Dante Simon, a judicial
shaken the church in Pope vicar, told The Associated
Francis's homeland. Press that the "horrible" al-
A three-judge panel in the legations are "more than
city of Mendoza sentenced plausible." He said the pon-
the Rev. Nicola Corradi to tiff expressed his sadness
42 years in prison and the and told him that "he was
Rev. Horacio Corbacho to very worried about this situ-
45 years, for abusing chil- ation."
dren at the Antonio Provolo In a report submitted to the
Institute for Deaf and Hear- Vatican that June, Simon
ing Impaired Children in Lu- requested the maximum
jan de Cuyo, a municipality canonical penalty for Cor-
in northwestern Argentina. radi and Corbacho, that
Corradi, an 83-year-old they be made to "resign
Italian, and Corbacho, directly by the Holy Father."
a 59-year-old Argentine, His report must be reviewed
were arrested in 2016. by the Congregation for
The court also sentenced Rev. Nicola Corradi, in wheelchair, Armando Gomez and Rev. Horacio Corbacho, are escorted the Doctrine of the Faith.
gardener Armando Gómez out of a courtroom, after being found guilty of sexual abuse of deaf children at a Catholic-run Corradi, who was the di-
to 18 years in prison. The school, in Mendoza, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 26, 2019. rector of the institute, has
victims are 10 former stu- Associated Press been under house arrest
dents. because of his age, while
The accused declined to The Vatican had known "The Argentine court has will launch a criminal inves- Corbacho and Gómez
make statements ahead of about Corradi since at given the traumatized chil- tigation of the archbishops were being held in a jail
the judges' ruling. They ap- least 2009, when the Ital- dren of Provolo a measure and other church leaders in the provincial capital of
peared somber as they ar- ian Provolo students went of justice that the Catho- who knew or should have Mendoza.
rived in the courtroom, with public with tales of abuse lic Church failed to give known that the school was Former students, young
Corradi in a wheelchair, his and named names. The them," said Anne Barrett being run by a child mo- men and women, testified
gaze fixed on the ground. Vatican ordered an investi- Doyle, co-founder of the lester." that the priests touched
The case has shocked Ar- gation and sanctioned four online research database Doyle also said that "the and sometimes raped
gentines — as did the rev- accused priests, but Cor- BishopAccountability.org, Pope too must accept re- them in their dormitories
elation that Corradi had radi apparently never was to the Associated Press. sponsibility for the unimagi- and school bathrooms.
been previously accused sanctioned in Italy. "The horror of Provolo is nable suffering of these They also said they were
of similar offences at a sister The defendants, who twofold: the torture of the children. He ignored re- forced to look at porno-
agency, the Antonio Pro- pleaded innocence, said children and the Church's peated warnings that Cor- graphic images. They said
volo Institute in Verona, Ita- the students' stories were failure to prevent it. We radi was in Argentina." they were warned to keep
ly, but was never charged. improbable. hope the prosecutors now Pope Francis has not com- quiet.
Investigators found records
Leader of LGBTQ organization in Haiti found dead of complaints made by
parents that weren't fol-
lowed up, photographs of
a naked girl on Corbacho's
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ing discrimination.
— Charlot Jeudy, the lead- "Faced with such perma- computer and chains he
allegedly used to subdue
er of a prominent LGBTQ nent and brutal stigmatiza-
organization in Haiti, was tion, violence, and insults, one girl.
Many in Argentina have
found dead on Monday, many of us — if not the
according to friends. totality — have lost hope asked why Francis did not
remove Corradi as the
Geraldine Clair Museau, to see our own dignity re-
a member of the group spected. ... That is what I authority at the Mendoza
school once he learned of
known as Kouraj, which want to fight," he wrote.
means "courage," in Eng- Haiti's LGBTQ community the allegations in Verona.
Corradi's name appeared
lish, told The Associated remains mostly under-
Press that Jeudy's body ground because of social publicly in 2009, when 67
people said they were
was found at his home stigma, although there are
in the capital of Port-au- no laws criminalizing homo- abused at the Verona insti-
tute by 24 priests, lay peo-
Prince. sexual relations as there are
It wasn't immediately clear in several English-speaking ple and religious brothers,
and specifically said that
how he died, and police In this July 13, 2018 file photo, Yaisah Val, 46, left, a transgender Caribbean islands.
didn't return calls for com- woman, laughs with Charlot Jeudy, center, president of Kouraj, A 2015 human rights report Corradi was in Argentina.
Haiti's leading LGBT-rights group, at their office in Port-au-Prince,
In 2012, the diocese of Ve-
ment. Haiti. on Haiti by the U.S. State
Jeudy has spoken out Associated Press Department said "local at- rona asked for forgiveness
from the victims and sanc-
against homophobia and titudes remained hostile to
was forced to cancel a munity in 2016 because of In a statement on his outward" LGBTQ identifica- tioned 24 of the accused,
although Corradi was not
festival celebrating the Af- numerous threats of vio- group's website, Jeudy tion and expression, espe-
ro-Caribbean LGBTQ com- lence. had vowed to keep fight- cially in the capital.q among them. None of the
cases ever went to trial.q