The 34th Crime Court of Santiago (Chile) determined the dismissal of the case of the priest Felipe Berrios By prescription in the investigation of a act of sexual abuse occurred in 2000, despite having accredited the crime.
Although he received seven complaints, the sentence to Berríos – explained in 2024 of the Society of Jesus – corresponds to an investigation referred exclusively to the fact denounced by a woman and that happened in August of 2000, when he was a minor and attended a spiritual retreat in the Sanctuary of Schoenstatt of the Florida.
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Judge Edgardo Gutiérrez Basualto determined total and definitely dismissing the priest “for having extinguished the criminal responsibility of the denounced Felipe Hernán Berríos del Solar, by prescription of the criminal action”, that is, for the time elapsed since the crime.
However, the evidence and the testimony of the victim, which was consistent over time, coherent and plausible, allowed to prove the elements corresponding to an sexual abuse committed by the priest on August 17, 2000.
The Defense of Berrios had already requested its dismissal and closing of the investigations at the end of 2023, but in April 2024 the Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Santiago decided not to give rise to the appeal.
As for the canonical process against him, in May 2024 the Chilean province of the Society of Jesus expelled him from the Order having been found “guilty of crimes against the sixth commandment committed with minors” and “crimes of request to sin against the sixth commandment, during or on the occasion of the confession.”
“After a long canonical process, the General Father of the Society of Jesus, after having studied the collected background, has decreed the expulsion of Felipe Berrios of the Society of Jesus,” says a Communiqué published at that time on the website of the Jesuits of Chile.
“At the same time and with the mandate of the Dicastery for the doctrine of faith (of the Vatican), the public exercise of the priesthood and all pastoral contact with minors for a period of 10 years has banned,” continues the document.
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.