Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Liborina, Antioquia, Colombia · 2015

Colombia: Antioquia parish priest convicted of abusing two children under cover of confession, thirteen years

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

parish priest, El Carmen de la Venta, Liborina, Antioquia

Organization

Parroquia El Carmen de la Venta, Liborina, Antioquia

Spiritual nexus

A parish priest used the sacrament of confession itself as the pretext to isolate child victims and used spiritual and personal intimidation to prevent disclosure.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Ritual, oath, or initiation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · conviction

    Juzgado Promiscuo del Circuito de Sopetrán, Antioquia. Gilberto Cardona Gómez, parish priest of El Carmen de la Venta in Liborina, Antioquia, was convicted of aggravated abusive sexual acts, homogeneous and successive, against two children aged 8 and 13, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. The court found he repeatedly summoned the children to his room under the pretext of confession beginning in 2012, and intimidated them into silence. He was suspended by the Church in 2012 and laicized in 2017.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • confession used as pretext to summon victims alone
  • threats to keep children from telling their parents

Primary record

Sources

national broadcast report sentencing report 'Sacerdote de Liborina pasará 14 años en la cárcel por abusar de dos menores', Noticias Caracol.

National broadcaster report on the sentence and the confession pretext.

regional newspaper court reporting sentencing report 'Condenan a sacerdote por abuso sexual de dos menores en Liborina', El Colombiano.

Antioquia regional-paper coverage confirming the 13-year sentence, laicization date, and diocesan suspension.

Related record

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