Chile: Jesuit-commissioned posthumous inquiry finds prominent priest Renato Poblete sexually abused children and adults for decades

Proceedings

1. 2021-05-01 · official posthumous finding

   Society of Jesus, Chile (Jesuit-commissioned independent investigation, published). Following the first allegation in 2019 by Marcela Aranda Escobar, the Chilean Jesuit province commissioned an investigation that found Poblete's accusers — including Aranda and other women he abused over nearly fifty years — 'plausible and credible', and separately confirmed abuse of at least four minors. The inquiry, published as the Jesuits' own report since Poblete died in 2010 and no criminal case was possible, described a 'double life' sustained by his public reputation.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• decades of public reputation as a champion of the poor, used to structure long-term personal access to victims and their families
• spiritual and pastoral authority exercised over adult women he counseled as well as children
• a victim's own explicit instruction that a Jesuit confidant not disclose what she had told him, which the Jesuits' own investigation found had been honored, delaying any institutional response