The Catholic Church has been court-ordered to pay the family whose children were sexually abused by a priest more than $165,000 in compensation, Caracol Radio reported Tuesday.
The Criminal Division of the Tribunal Superior of Ibague ordered the dioceses of the northern Tolima municipalities of Libano and Honda to compensate the family of two children abused by a former priest, Luis Enrique Durque.
The children, aged seven and eight years old, were abused in July 2007.
Police arrested the priest in May 2010 in the department of Antioquia.
The Catholic Church was exempted of responsibility by the civil circuit court of Libano, but the children’s mother, who filed the lawsuit, won an appeal from the Tribunal Superior.
The higher court required the Church to pay the plaintiff for moral and material damages.
