Time has already begun to run: the Archdiocese of Medellín has 48 hours to answer the questions that the journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos sent him on April 19, 2020. And the matter is not minor. The order stems from a ruling by the Constitutional Court which, headed by Judge Gloria Stella Ortiz, determined that the information requested by the journalist is of public interest.
The bid between Barrientos and the Archdiocese began two years ago. The journalist, who has published two books on alleged cases of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, requested information from the 915 priests in the Archdiocese. He sent 10 questions to that institution in which he requested information from each of them.. The Archdiocese refused and there began a legal mess that barely concluded with the Court’s decision.
Barrientos filed a tutela action due to the reluctance to deliver the information. In the first instance, the 14th Civil Court of the Medellín Circuit agreed with the journalist and demanded that the data in question be handed over. But the Archdiocese challenged the decision, which passed to the Superior Court of Medellín, where the first instance was revoked. The investigator then filed another conservatorship against the original conservatorship decision. And there it entered review in the Constitutional Court.
But, beyond the judicial tangle, what is in the background is a decision on the right to information, especially framed in a context of complaints about alleged sexual abuse against minors within the church.
To go into details about what the investigator has found, EL COLOMBIANO spoke with him and asked him about the recent Court ruling, which he found out about, he said, from a publication in this newspaper.
What were you looking for with the 10 questions and why did you request information from the 915 priests?
“There was a clear indication. By another sentence of the Court, they had responded to me for 100 priests. Of them, it turns out that 25 had been reported for alleged sexual abuse against children and adolescents. That’s why I decided to ask about the rest, because there could be a lot of hidden information. They were basic questions, which were due to when each priest was ordained, what parishes he has passed through and if they have received any complaints of sexual abuse about them.
Speaking of these abuses, you say that there are 43 priests in the Archdiocese with complaints about it. Has criminal progress been made in them?
“Not at all. The majority of the cases are resolved internally by the Catholic Church, reconciling with the victims, who almost all have a similar profile”.
What is that profile?
“They have four patterns: the majority are boys, very poor, from dysfunctional families where there is no father figure. Many times they come to church with the intention of serving. So, since most of them are poor and can’t afford a lawyer, they go to the curia to file a complaint, where they reconcile with the church. I found that in this investigation.”
What course will the investigation follow after the Court’s ruling?
“I think they are not going to respond and that is something very serious. In other countries we have already seen that the church has disappeared the secret archives and the truth about what happened has not been known. Even if we don’t like the sentences of the judges, we have to abide by them. These gentlemen believe that Canon Law is above the Constitution. Now it is up to court 14 to monitor and ensure that the archdiocese delivers the requested information.”
Yesterday, EL COLOMBIANO contacted the Archdiocese of Medellin to find out the response to the ruling of the Constitutional Court. From there they responded that they would only make a public pronouncement that, until the closing of this edition, had not taken place.