“I am distressed.”
That was the condition that led the 32-year-old professional to carry out psychological therapies more than a decade ago. At the age of 14, she had already had her first panic attack, which made her turn to a psychiatrist and start taking medication to mitigate the anguish with which she permanently – assures – she must deal. She still never expected that one of these sessions would uncover a memory that she, she said, had blocked: having been sexually abused by a well-known priest when she was a teenager.
This testimony -of the complainant whose identity will remain confidential- is the origin of the previous investigation against one of the iconic religious of the Society of Jesus: the priest Felipe Berrios del Solar (65).
The story is included in the proceedings carried out by the lawyer Maria Elena Santibanezwhom the congregation contacted to evaluate the case and whose work ends this August 20, upon expiration of the extension requested by the instructor.
So far, what is known is that there are other testimonies that would reveal inappropriate behavior on the part of Berríos, although it has already been established that none of them constitute a crime. As described in the criminal types in force at the time the events occurred. However, the task to Santibáñez is not to establish the innocence or guilt of the religious, but to gather information and determine if the allegations turn out to be “credible” and -if so- send the information to Rome so that they can initiate a canonical investigation. .
Four months after filing this complaint, La Tercera managed to collect aspects of the accusation that today has the priest suspended from his ministerial functions and away from “La Chimba”, in Antofagasta. In this community he lived until before the events were known, which are sponsored by the lawyer Juan Pablo Hermosilla, from the Foundation for Confidence.
Felipe Berríos became the spiritual guide of the complainant’s family in 1996, after one of his aunts died in the accident of Aeroperú flight 603, along with 59 other passengers, 30 of them Chileans.
The tragic outcome -according to the woman who was seven years old at the time- turned Berríos into a mainstay of support for his mother and grandparents during the complex duel caused by the sudden departure of his aunt. “He helped my family find meaning from the pain”maintained the complainant regarding the priest who in those years officiated masses at the Colegio San Ignacio El Bosque.
It was not only they who sought spiritual refuge in the figure of the religious. So did the other relatives of the Chileans who died in the accident in Peru. This is how retreats, trips were organized and even her family -she says- had a “room for Felipe” in the house on the beach that they bought with the compensation that the airline gave them.
The new “meaning of life” that her grandparents found after the loss of their daughter made her and her cousins change from secular to Catholic schools, and Berríos became the cornerstone of the family. “Felipe became very close to my entire family, becoming the confessor and spiritual guide of my grandparents, my mother and another aunt, who consider him a great friend”detailed in the complaint.
The woman remembers that at that time she was just starting “Techo para Chile” and that she used to accompany her mother to the camps where the priest helped.
In 2004, when she was 14 years old, she remembers that her mother took her to the Berríos office in Infocap, on Av. Departamental, since She was going through episodes of anguish after having sex with her boyfriend at the time.
“He received me, I sat in an armchair that he had, and he sat in front of me in an office chair. I told him with anguish and he began to comfort me with words, putting his hand on my knee”, he describes.
After that, as he pointed out, Berríos explained to him that he should calm down, because what he was describing was not a sexual act as such and that he had not lost his virginity as he thought. Along with this he advised her to take a mirror and observe her private parts and pointed out that he did not understand that women did not know his own anatomy.
It was there when the woman described the behaviors that are examined today by Santibáñez:
“Felipe began to caress me on the knee while the conversation led to my disagreement with my body, in how insecure I felt in front of it. At one point he asked me to stand up. He continued to sit in his chair and began to touch my arms, abdomen, thighs and buttocks with his two hands, by virtue of his position of power and the vulnerability in which I found myself. He made me turn around while he kept passing his hands and telling me: “But you’re super good.” Then she slapped me on the buttocks and I sat back down. At the end of the meeting, the defendant absolved me of my sins, as is done in a Catholic confession.
In May 2021, the 32-year-old professional began a more intense psychological therapy than in the past. It was in the middle of those sessions when she -she says- began to appear the images of sexualized behaviors that led her to this complaint.
“I begin to feel as if I have his pubic hair on my face (…) I see images of his bare legs, I see myself sitting next to him, on a bed or an armchair, me a girl, at seven or eight years old”, detailed. In those same sessions, she explained she, Images of sexual relations with the defendant in the sacristy of the San Ignacio El Bosque School came to him.
The woman explains in the complaint that it was -through therapy- that could “resignify” events of the past and that this allowed him, “to realize that they constituted an abuse by the priest.” Of the reconstitution of those supposed memories, she adds, her husband, a friend and her psychologist know. At the end of 2021, she sought support from Fundación para la Confianza. Once the episode was recounted -he assures-, “to my surprise and consolation they told me things like: ‘but if it is known that Felipe grabbed everyone’s poto’ or ‘but if he made me confess in his lap’”.
In the complaint, the woman explains that “Despite the fact that the images of abuse when I was a child, when I was seven or eight years old, are disjointed, loose, like isolated images, I am certain that Felipe Berríos abused me at that time.”
She adds that the consequences of what she experienced would have made her an “extremely distressing” person and that she later became a hypersexualized teenager with worrying behaviors, such as bulimia or self-inflicted cuts.
Once she managed to “realize” that she had been a victim of abuse, she maintains, she has been calmer, since she knows what is the origin of her anguish and panic attacks.
The complainant ends her testimony this way: “Despite this emotional peace that it has brought me, I am uneasy with what I have discovered, I feel that I have the responsibility to alert those who are concerned, in order to prevent situations like the ones I experienced from be repeated, in order to avoid suffering in those people who may be in contact with Felipe Berríos. I feel uncomfortable and complicit in keeping silentknowing that my testimony could help other women who may have experienced something similar or are currently experiencing it, especially since I have the impression that the priest’s abusive behavior is an ‘open secret’”.
Those who know of the proceedings carried out by Santibáñez point out that the priest, when summoned to testify, recognized the relationship of trust he had with that family. He also recalled that her mother took her to her office in her Infocap due to an anguish crisis that had triggered an early sexual experience in the adolescent. Berríos -however- categorically denies that he touched her in that meetingas the complainant states, or having at some time in his life engaged in conduct of sexual connotation with her.
The facts are also investigated by the Prosecutor Yasmin Salech -expert in investigations for sexual crimes-, after the “self-denunciation” made by Berríos’s lawyer -criminal Julián López- so that his client could not only face ecclesiastical justice, but also be able to defend his innocence before civil justice.
Of the days of Berríos away from “La Chimba” little is known. He is living in Santiago waiting for what Santibáñez and the Society of Jesus resolve. Although those close to him comment that he has no hope of disassociating himself from the accusations against him in the short term.
With the term of the preliminary investigation already expired, the Society of Jesus maintained: “We are waiting for the canonical preliminary investigation. These records will be sent to the corresponding instance, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faithin Rome, as established by canon law for these cases”.
April 29: The first testimony
-Company of Jesus receives the complaint of the first victim, which was derived from the Archbishopric of Santiago.
May 1: Communication
-Provincial Gabriel Roblero informs Felipe Berríos by telephone that a complaint has been received against him.
May 2: Precautionary
-Berríos is suspended as a priest, he is ordered to travel to Stgo. and any contact with minors is prohibited.
May 2: Made public
-Congregation informs citizens about the beginning of the process against the denounced priest.
May 3: The investigation begins
-Lawyer for canonical preliminary investigation, María Elena Santibáñez, receives the first information.
May 4: “I will clarify everything”
-Berríos issues a statement where he discards the facts attributed to him and assures that he will collaborate.
May 5: Formalities
– Lawyer Santibáñez verbally informs Berríos about the complaint received against him.
May 11: More cases?
-Diario La Segunda assures that Fundación para la Confianza had received two new complaints.
May 11: Declaration
-The Jesuit priest gives his version of the facts in the investigation after being summoned to testify by the investigating lawyer.
May 30: Civil Justice
-Berríos, through his lawyer, Julián López, denounces himself in the South Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office.
June 12: Background is added
-In a report issued by Chilevisión, Fundación para la Confianza claims to have more than 10 testimonies against Berríos.
August 20: Deadlines
-Date set for delivery of the investigation report by María Elena Santibáñez.
The complaint that gave rise to the case against Felipe Berríos
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