Comment on Clerical abuse scandal hits Argentine president's school

Clerical abuse scandal hits Argentine president's school

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Rufino Varela was a distraught, confused 12-year-old when he went looking for help from the school chaplain to tell him he'd been sexually abused by a mason at his family's home. [...] in recent months, Varela's decision to break his silence has led several other former students to denounce clerical abuse at a school that has educated President Mauricio Macri and many other members of Argentina's elite. The case is one of several that have shown the church has not been spared sexual scandals even in the home territory of Pope Francis, who has pledged a zero-tolerance policy against abuses that have rocked the church around the world. While the pope had no connection with the abuse at the time — he led the Argentine branch of the Jesuit order with no relationship to the school — Varela said he received a call from the pontiff this year after revealing the abuse publicly. Varela said he decided to confront Newman authorities about the abuse after he heard that the school planned to add a crown to the lion in its coat of arms in honor of Macri, a 1976 graduate who was elected president in 2015. With the excuse of giving him a sex talk, he asked him to get naked and lie down on his bed. Another former student alleged that the Brother John Derham sat him on his lap in the school library and kissed him on the mouth. "Towards the end of the school year of 1980, I was made aware of a complaint of inappropriate behavior by the college chaplain towards a pupil whose identity was not known or revealed to me," Burke said in a statement to the AP. Burke told Varela that, "I took immediate and what I judged to be appropriate measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all the pupils in the school and of every person who had contact with the chaplain." A video published online by Newman's alumni association five years ago, shows Burke referring to Derham as his novice master and prai

 

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