WORLD NEWS MARCH 28, 2019 / 5:28 PM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO

Chile court opens door for more Church sex abuse victims to seek damages

Natalia A. Ramos Miranda
3 MIN READ

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile’s Catholic Church should prepare itself for an onslaught of new civil suits from victims seeking compensation for past cases of sexual abuse, a lawyer who successfully sued the Archdiocese of Santiago said on Thursday.

Juan Pablo Hermosilla said a Chilean court’s decision on Wednesday to force Chile’s most influential archdiocese to pay his clients more than $400,000 in damages has opened the door for other “victims of abuse in church settings,” to seek financial compensation.

The appeals court decision is the first to require Chile’s powerful Roman Catholic Church to pay damages related to an ongoing sex abuse scandal that last year prompted Pope Francis to apologize to the church’s community worldwide.

“The Archdiocese of Santiago should consider creating a reparations commission,” Hermosilla told Reuters. “This would be a good way to avoid the exhausting and destructive process of dealing with each case in court.”

The deepening abuse scandal in Chile last week led Pope Francis to accept the resignation of Archbishop of Santiago Ricardo Ezzati, the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church in Chile.

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