JARRING NEWS that I read in the OBITUARIES?
"Paul Schaefer, 89; led sect in Chile, convicted of abuse" by Emma Brown, Washington Post | April 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — Paul Schaefer, a German-born evangelical preacher who was convicted of sexually abusing 25 children while leading one of the world’s most notorious anti-Semitic and apocalyptic sects, died April 24 of a heart ailment at a prison hospital in Chile. He was 89.
He was serving a 20-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of the children at his enclave in southern Chile, Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony, a place that human rights groups say doubled in population during the 1970s and ’80s as a detention and torture center for opponents of right-wing dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
At the time of his death, Mr. Schaefer was still under investigation for the 1985 disappearance of mathematician Boris Weisfeiler, an American citizen who went missing while hiking near Colonia Dignidad. At the time, the Chilean government said that Weisfeiler, an experienced outdoorsman, drowned while attempting to cross a river.
Years later, news reports said declassified US State Department and CIA documents indicated that Weisfeiler, a Russian-born Jew, was probably kidnapped by government security forces and then taken to Mr. Schaefer’s commune.
Another CIA "citizen" hiker, huh?
News reports said police found a folder with Weisfeiler’s name at the compound, and a Chilean military informant told US officials that Weisfeiler was tortured and killed there....
Mr. Schaefer turned to preaching after serving in the German military during World War II. He traveled the German countryside with an acoustic guitar and a message of salvation through sexual abstinence. Armed with powerful charisma and a gift for public speaking, he collected hundreds of followers before eventually establishing an orphanage near Bonn.
Accused of molesting two boys at the orphanage, he fled to Chile in 1961 and started his commune on a picturesque ranch 225 miles south of Santiago. The enclave boasted its own landing strip, television station, power plant, as well as lumber, honey, and brick-making businesses.
WTF?
Mr. Schaefer built a school and a hospital, winning over some local citizens by offering them free education and health care.
Yes, even the Devil himself can win people over with those two items.
However, Colonia Dignidad’s darker side soon emerged. Former members of the sect told reporters and Chilean and German officials of Mr. Schaefer’s unsavory tendencies. He was always accompanied by a handpicked coterie of boys who ran his errands, brushed his hair, and tied his shoes. He maintained total control over the lives of his followers, the former members said, forbidding contact with the outside world and using electric shocks and tranquilizers to punish those who broke his rules.
Babies were taken from their mothers at birth and raised in a communal nursery....
Mr. Schaefer avoided arrest for decades, largely because of his close relationships with political and military leaders, including with Pinochet, brought to power by a 1973 coup d’etat.
Related: Another 9/11 Anniversary
Again brought to you by "Al-CIA-Duh."
And you know what is really strange?
See: Chileans Cheer Return of Pinochet
Yeah, something sure does stink about another election.
Thousands of political dissidents disappeared or were killed during Pinochet’s rule, and human rights groups say that many were taken to Colonia Dignidad, where they were tortured in underground chambers.
Pinochet left the presidency in 1990. Mr. Schaefer escaped a 1997 police raid and continued to evade law enforcement officials until 2005, when he was arrested in Argentina....
Chilean police found a military arsenal buried at Colonia Dignidad, including 92 machine guns, 104 semiautomatic weapons, more than 1,800 hand grenades, and an unknown number of surface-to-air missiles. They also found files detailing how people had been detained and tortured there during the Pinochet era.
In 2006, Mr. Schaefer was sentenced to 20 years for sexually abusing minors and three years for violating weapons laws. In 2008, he received additional sentences for torturing colony residents and for killing an allegedly traitorous security agent who had served under Pinochet.
Paul Schaefer was born near Bonn in 1921. He had a glass eye, having accidentally gouged out his right eye while trying to untie a shoelace knot with a fork. He joined the Nazi youth movement before becoming a Luftwaffe medic stationed in France during World War II.
Members of Mr. Schaefer’s unnamed sect publicly apologized for their Pinochet-era abuses in 2006 with a full-page advertisement in a leading Chilean newspaper. Mr. Schaefer was to blame, they said.
“He allowed our villa to be used for the detention and repression of people persecuted’’ by Pinochet, they wrote. Colony members “became real slaves of Schaefer, like robots dedicated only to obey his orders.’’
The Chilean government now controls his former colony....
Considering what is above this seems tame by comparison:
"In Chile, abuse allegations against a revered priest stir outrage; But cardinal says 4 accusers’ claims are under review" by Alexei Barrionuevo and Laurie Goodstein, New York Times | April 23, 2010
SANTIAGO, Chile — The Rev. Fernando Karadima is one of Chile’s most respected and influential priests. Some go so far as to call him a “living saint,’’ who for half a century trained dozens of priests and helped mold thousands of young Catholics from Santiago’s elite.
Now four men who were once devoted followers have filed a criminal complaint alleging that Karadima, now 80, sexually abused them in secret for years.
One man said he had reported the abuse to Karadima’s superiors in the Archdiocese of Santiago as many as seven years ago, but they took no action. All four men filed formal complaints last year with the archdiocesan tribunal and, receiving no response, spoke publicly for the first time this week.
But the allegations have been largely met not with anger at Karadima but with outrage at the accusers by many of his parishioners, a prominent conservative politician, and church officials. They say a man so respected over so much time could not possibly have abused his followers.
However, as the news broke this week, a cardinal here confirmed that the church has been secretly investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against the priest.
The case, in one of Latin America’s most staunchly Catholic countries, comes as the Roman Catholic Church worldwide is under increasing scrutiny for how it handles accusations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy. It also underscores the church’s continuing vulnerability as new instances of abuse are alleged — some, as in Chile, against well-known and trusted figures.
Chile’s Catholic Church officially asked for forgiveness earlier this week for priests involved in some 20 cases of sexual abuse against minors....
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Didn't they have a historic earthquake there or something?
How is that clean-up going?
