Jorge Medina Estévez

Jorge Arturo Agustín Medina Estévez (; 23 December 1926 – 3 October 2021) was a Chilean prelate of the Catholic Church who held senior positions both in his native country and in the Roman Curia. He was prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 1996 to 2002 and was made a cardinal in 1998. Beginning in 1985, he served as auxiliary bishop and then from 1987 bishop of Rancagua and then bishop of Valparaíso from 1993 to 1996.

As Cardinal Protodeacon, the longest-serving cardinal of the order of cardinal deacons, he announced the election of Pope Benedict XVI to the world on 19 April 2005.

Early life and ordination Medina was born in Santiago in 1926, and studied at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he received a bachelor's degree in the arts and biology, and the Major Seminary of Santiago.

Church scholar Earning a doctorate in theology in 1955, Medina taught philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary of Santiago and of the Pontifical Catholic University, respectively, until 1965. He also served as a dean of the university, and as a peritus at the Second Vatican Council; for the latter, he later received an honoris causa doctorate from the University of Notre Dame in 1996.

Bishop Pro-Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University from 1974 to 1985, he was named titular bishop of Thibilis and auxiliary bishop of Rancagua on 18 December 1984. Medina was consecrated to the episcopate on 6 January 1985, by Pope John Paul II,

In retirement he returned to Chile in order to work as a priest in a parish in Las Condes. In the same period he published many short works of a pastoral nature.

Death and legacy

He died in Santiago on 3 October 2021. Months after his death, a small park in his hometown was named after him by the local Council.

Sexual abuse of minors by priests The prominent 80-year-old priest Fernando Karadima was found guilty in January 2011 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of having sexually abused minors and ordered to retire to a life of prayer and penitence and never to exercise the priesthood in public again, Karadima was then accused under Chilean civil law of sexual abuse of minors, Medina is reported to have said that he doubted that the cleric would be sent to prison, since homosexual activity was not a crime in Chilean civil law and use of the term "sexual abuse" could be questioned: "With all due respect to the laws of my country, a child of 8 or 9 is very different from a 17-year-old ... A 17-year-old youngster knows what he is doing." He also remarked that priests are not immune to the devil's works: "Any informed Christian knows we are prone to weakness because of our human fragility. The devil gets in where he can. Priests are not immune from his snares." He defended the canonical sanctions imposed on Karadima as being the heaviest that could be imposed short of laicization, and as having taken into account Karadima's age and merits.

One of Karadima's accusers called the cardinal's remark about 17-year-olds "an unwarranted attack". Another added that it was an attack not only on those who had denounced Karadima, but on all who were honestly looking for truth and justice for their lives. He regarded Medina's statements as "extremely suspicious, as if he wanted to diminish the outline of these grave actions, reducing the issue to homosexuality in a very silly manner, as if, furthermore, homosexuality and abuse were synonymous". The statements, he said, "were an attempt to free from responsibility someone who took advantage of his position of power over more vulnerable persons".