Pope Francis has expelled the Chilean priest Cristian Precht Bañados who is under investigation for child sex abuse.
The Archdiocese of Santiago said the Pope had decided to defrock the
Reverend, Cristian Precht, local daily El Mercurio reported.
Precht was a former head of the Church’s Vicariate of Solidarity
human rights group that in the 1980s had challenged ex-dictator Augusto
Pinochet to end the practice of torture in Chile. The well-known Chilean
religious leader has since been accused of sexual abuse as part of the
investigation into allegations against members of the Marist Brothers
religious community. Precht has previously denied the charges.
Precht’s defrocking is the first formal resignation the Pope has
decreed since every bishop in Chile offered to step down in May over the
country’s sex abuse scandal. The move is thought to be unprecedented in
the modern history of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis announcement comes as Chilean police raid church offices
throughout the Andean nation looking for new cases of sexual abuse or
evidence that church officials concealed abuse from authorities.