Rogel Pinuer a priest from Temuco, Chile was found guilty of sexually abusing four children. The priest will be sentenced on Sunday and could face up to 15-years in prison. The abuse is said to have taken place consistently over the course of five-years from 2006 to 2011. The 53-year-old is said to have given his teenaged victims alcohol and money in exchange for sexual favors. Pinuer's victims were between the ages of 14 and 16 when the abuse took place.
The prosecutor trying the Pinuer case, Omar Merida said he had enough evidence to prove the priest's abuses go back as far as 20 years. "The evidence we presented showed that these same acts had been occurring for at least the last 20 years," Merida told the media. Merida also took aim at the Catholic Church for failing to co-operate with the investigation. In the past the Catholic Church has been accused of not doing enough to put a stop to Priests victimizing children. Pinuer was accused of molesting teens at the San Juan Bosco Young People's Home in Temuco.
Rogel Pinuer is due to be sentenced on Sunday. The alleged abuses took place while the former priest was the administrator for the Catholic youth boarding school. In addition to his duties at the school, Pinuer was also the priest at the Immaculate Conception Parish of Cunco in Temuco, Chile. Each of the victims in this case were boarding at the school during the time of the abuse. The prosecutor also filed two additional charges against Pinuer but they were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Pope Francis has been trying to crack down against sexual abuse on children by Catholic priests. Since becoming Pope earlier this year, Francis has gained a reputation as a modern, reformist Pope. He has started by first targeting abuses in the Vatican. In July the Pope created a new law for the Vatican City-State, home to hundreds of people. The new law makes it a crime to abuse children sexually or physically on Vatican grounds. CNN says the law Francis created was already in existence as Church Law. Now these acts are outlawed within the whole of Vatican City, not just the Vatican itself.
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