The former Chancellor of the Archbishopric of Santiago, Óscar Muñoz Toledo, was sentenced to 15 years and one day in prison for his responsibility in cases of repeated rape and repeated sexual abuse against minors.
In this way, the Seventh Oral Criminal Court of Santiago dismissed the request of the Public Ministry, which requested an effective sentence of 30 years and one day of imprisonment. The 60-year-old former priest had been in preventive detention since 2018.
The crimes were committed between 2006 and 2009 against three minors. To the above is added a repeated violation in 2013 against another minor, a case that was repeated in 2017 and 2018. All these cases, registered both in Santiago and Rancagua, were duly accredited by the Prosecutor’s Office. According to the prosecution body, “the accused, using his priestly ordination, in addition to the kinship link with some of the victims, won the trust of the parents of the affected minors.”
Added to the above is the expulsion of Óscar Muñoz from the priesthood, a decision adopted by Pope Francis I after learning of his prosecution. In 2019, the Vatican released a statement in which “the Holy Father Francis has imposed the resignation of Óscar Muñoz Toledo from the clerical state, for the crimes of sexual abuse of minors.”
“This case is very heartbreaking,” the now former spokesman for the Episcopal Conference (CECh), Jaime Coiro, told El Mercurio, who harshly criticized the authorities who were leading the destinies of the Church, including Ricardo Ezzati, since ” When the authority of the Church became aware of the abuses, they had no concern for the victims. Instead of sending the records to justice and saving the minors who were at risk, what was done was to remove him from office and give him residence in the same family environment where he had committed the abuse! The issue was swept under the rug.”
“In between, the pope came (Francisco, in January 2018), then (bishop in charge of investigating these cases, Charles) Scicluna, and in the meantime the priest continued to sign parish checks and went on vacation with his family to continue committing abuse. If the Church had put this in the hands of justice, Muñoz would have been prevented from committing a new abuse with another victim and from abusing a family member again, ”he asserted.
