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Poverty in Colombia increases after steady 15-year drop - Colombia News

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While President Juan Manuel Santos praised a drop in Colombia’s GINI coefficient, the country’s statistics agency on Wednesday released statistics showing that poverty in 2016 went up for the first time since 2002. According to statistics agency DANE, the country’s poverty rate went from 27.8% to 28%, the first time poverty rose since 2002. Extreme poverty […]

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A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media.

So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.

"The responsibility for complying with the norms established in the decree of the Archdiocese for the protection of minors rests solely on my person and not on the archdiocese of Cali or the ecclesiastical entity in which I render my services. I therefore assume total responsibility," says an excerpt of the document obtained by Blu Radio.

The document also implies that all compensation for sexually abused minors must be paid by the priest themselves.

The president of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia and current Archbishop of the Andean city of Tunja, Monsignor Luis Augusto Castro, said that the document was drafted and presented at the national level but that each diocese decides whether to implement it or not.

"It is not an order for everyone, but a suggestion, because each diocese has its own autonomy and that is respected," said the archbishop in an interview with newspaper El Pais.

Castro explained that this decision is taken to safeguard the diocese, "because if a person commits a fault, the person must pay for what he does and not the diocese."

He added that the document should not only be signed by members of the clergy but also addressed to all employees of the diocese operating in non-religious roles.

However, people outside of the church are criticizing this document, saying it is unethical and contradictory.

Lawyer Elmer Montaña said that by forcing priests to sign a document that seeks to rid them of their civil liability, the Church intends to bypass the law and ignore the jurisprudence of the courts, reported El Pais.

"It would be as if the State made the police and soldiers sign a similar document to evade responsibility in case they incurred in a crime. This leaves a bad taste and surely the Church of Cali is contrary to the dictates of the Vatican."

The Catholic Church has faced a wave of criticism over the acts of pedophilia by clerics and the subsequent intended cover-up of many by church authorities.

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Colombia's Catholic church shuns responsibility in potential child abuse cases

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A controversial document stipulating that priests are solely responsible in child abuse cases and not the church, has been circulated by the Catholic Church in Colombia, reported local media. So far only the archdiocese of the southwestern city of Cali has made its priests sign a document absolving their employer of all responsibility, which has once again opened the debate on liability in church pedophilia cases.

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Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office ordered political leaders from Putumayo on Tuesday to give testimony on the flooding that destroyed large parts of the department's capital in spite of early warnings.

The mayor of Mocoa, the governor of Putumayo and the director of regional environmental authority Corpoamazonas will all have to appear before prosecutors.

The Prosecutor General's Office will investigate whether the regional authorities carry any criminal responsibility for the natural disaster that has left 290 confirmed dead with scores still missing.

Local media reported Tuesday that Corpoamazonas had warned the local authorities about the threat of flash floods because Pacific weather phenomenon was to coincide with the country's traditional rainy season.

Additionally, national meteorological institute IDEAM had warned about the possibly disastrous effects of "La Niña" in July last year already.

Many of Mocoa's destroyed neighborhoods were built on the Mocoa River's floodplain where the river should naturally overflow in the event of extreme rainfall like that of Saturday and Sunday.

Additionally, deforestation in the area may have aggravated the disaster.

Colombia's fiscal authorities also opened investigations into whether the local and regional authorities did spend the earmarked budgets for environmental management on environmental management.

While the authorities begin figuring out whether anyone should be held responsible for Colombia's biggest natural disaster in decades, the city continues to look the bodies of victims. With more than 48 hours since the disaster, the chance of finding living survivors in the mud and rubble decreases by the hour.

President Juan Manuel Santos has been in Mocoa since Sunday to oversee the rescue efforts and to make initial plans for the reconstruction of the destroyed capital of Putumayo.

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Prosecution to hear south Colombia authorities over Mocoa disaster

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Colombia's Prosecutor General's Office ordered political leaders from Putumayo on Tuesday to give testimony on the flooding that destroyed large parts of the department's capital in spite of early warnings. The mayor of Mocoa, the governor of Putumayo and the director of regional environmental authority Corpoamazonas will all have to appear before prosecutors.