Two priests convicted of abusing deaf children

MENDOZA, Argentina — Two priests were found guilty on Monday of sexually abusing deaf children at a Catholic-run school in Argentina and sentenced to more than 40 years in prison, in a case that has shaken the church in Pope Francis’ homeland.

A three-judge panel in the city of Mendoza sentenced the Rev. Nicola Corradi to 42 years and the Rev. Horacio Corbacho to 45 years for abusing children at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Lujan de Cuyo, a municipality in northwestern Argentina.

Corradi, an 83-year-old Italian, and Corbacho, a 59-year-old Argentine, were arrested in 2016. The court also sentenced gardener Armando Gomez to 18 years in prison.

It’s expected that Corradi will remain under house arrest because of his age, while Corbacho and Gomez will be held in a prison in the city of Mendoza.

The judges found the men guilty of 20 counts of abuse, including rape, that occurred between 2005 and 2016 at the school, which has since shut down. The 10 victims were former students and all minors at the time of the abuse. The verdict can be appealed.

Pope Francis has not commented publicly on the case, although in 2017, the Vatican sent two Argentine priests to investigate what happened in Mendoza.

After the sentence was delivered, several victims expressed their joy in the courthouse hallway by jumping and raising their arms in the air, as if they were clapping. They embraced the prosecutors who had investigated their cases.