Pope Francis removed Argentine Father Justo José Ilarraz of the Diocese of Santísima Concepción in Tucumán from the priesthood on Dec. 11, in a surprising gesture that brought solace to the victims, who had been denouncing the priest since the 1990s.
Ilarraz is accused of abusing over 50 teenagers with ages varying from 12 to 14 when he worked at a seminary in the city of Paraná, between 1984 and 1992. The case was so scandalous that it was cited in the movie Spotlight (2015), about the team of reporters that revealed numerous cases of child abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston.
“The Diocese of the Santísima Concepción de Tucumán communicates that an administrative penal process was carried out against Father Justo Ilarraz, incardinated in this diocese, for crimes against the sixth commandment with minors (…), and after the appeal of the defendant was elevated to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, this body determined (…) to present the case to the Holy Father, who has ordered the expulsion from the clerical state of the aforementioned priest,” a statement released by the Diocese read.
Victims of the priest and activists of Argentina’s Network of Ecclesial Abuse Survivors, who received the news with relief, had complained for several years of the long wait for canonical and civil justice in Ilarraz’s case.
Continue reading at the Catholic Herald