Ef Challenge 2020
What global issue are you most passionate about solving?
Good morning, my name is Camila Orozco, I'm a 10th grade student from the American School in Barranquilla, Colombia, and today I'm pleased to address you in order to speak my mind without fear and embrace the fact that the world is ours to change.
When I first heard about this situation many years ago, I felt that the world I had grown into was a lie, since I was raised in a highly Catholic family, I even studied during six years of my life in a wonderful school in which the director was a priest; therefore, when I learned about this, I was completely terrified and I can say that it is one of the main causes why I have grown apart from the Catholic Church. Then, at this point you might have guessed that I am referring to the sexual abuse to children by priests.
This is not a new problem, but it could be quite surprising how old it is, the oldest register of this type of cases goes as far behind as the IVth century.
Throughout history, the Catholic Church started to create rules to protect themselves from the denounces from the people; for instance, in 1962, Pope Juan XVIII pronounced a law that stated that all the members of the Church had to keep secret all the cases related to child abuse; however, as far as we now, this law is still valid nowadays.
This is an issue that has been happening behind our backs, but it is only now that the Church has started to “take actions”, it is a terrible situation that has left thousands of victims around the globe, just between 1950 and 2002, almost 4500 priests were accused of child sexual abuse; nonetheless, in Colombia, more than a 100 cases have been recognized.
Despite that, we do not need to go far to feel outraged about the barbarities the Church has committed because in Colombia there are lots of cases that show how the priests cover each other's backs, so no one ever gets punished.
Juan Pablo Barrientos, a journalist from la W, ran an investigation in which he exposed 17 cases of pederasty in Medellin and this research is nowadays a book entitled “Dejad que los niños vengan a mi” and the list of cases has grown longer.
One of those cases is about Mario Castrillón, who was accused of raping two minors and took advantage of the fact that he was their counselor and spiritual guide in order to gain sexual favors and satisfy his lustful appetite, so he was condemned, but after he came back to duty, nothing has happened. The archbishop of Medellin, Ricardo Tobón, was interviewed about this case and he said that according to a special code that rules over the church, called the canon law, the priest was innocent.
About the case of Juan Diego Rodas, a priest that had raped minors and then disappeared, the archbishop affirmed they didn ́t denounce this case to the Fiscalía because it was not their duty, but he felt sad because he is a “good person” that due to life's chances, he had gone through a crisis and made a mistake.
Or the case of Roberto Cadavid, who was suspended from service and ended up working in Brooklyn, New York, from whom the archbishop affirmed that these actions were made behind his back, but the church in Brooklyn even showed a recommendation letter from the archbishop.
What can we see in common in all the cases is that the priests received support from the archbishop to cover their backs, the law was ignored and they were judged under the canon law, and all those cases ended up hidden in their secret files, to which no one has access.
It is time for the Church to answer to their mistakes, to allow justice to be made, to protect the children, to reveal all the hidden cases, but if things continue this way, we will have to wait in sæcula sæculorum, for ever and ever more.
Amen
By Camila Orozco, Step 10
