Woman says archbishop of Tokyo ignored her pleas after priest allegedly raped her
A 64-year-old woman, who has sued a Catholic congregation in Nagasaki over allegedly being raped by its priest, criticized the Archbishop of Tokyo Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, who heads the congregation, for ignoring her repeated pleas to take stricter measures against the priest.
In a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, Tokie Tanaka and her lawyer, Kazue Akita, questioned the integrity of Kikuchi, who is one of the 130 cardinals expected to join the conclave to elect a new pope after Pope Francis died last month.
Akita blamed Kikuchi for failing to take appropriate action when Tanaka told the congregation about the alleged sex abuse from the priest.
'During that time, Mr. Kikuchi was also affiliated with the same congregation as the priest and at the same time, held the position of Archbishop of Tokyo. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that he was unaware of the case or in a position to say that he was not responsible,' Akita said.
Tanaka, who works as a nurse living in Tokyo, filed a civil lawsuit in 2023 against the Catholic Society of the Divine Word in Japan, alleging that a priest sexually abused her over a period of 4½ years after she confessed about her past sexual abuse from another man, which had traumatized her. She sought ¥30 million in damages. She was unable to sue the priest because he had already returned to his home country of Chile.
In 2019, the church suspended Father Vargas Flos Osvaldo Javier over allegations that he committed sexual crimes and broke the vow of chastity after Tanaka told the congregation of her experience in 2018. However, Tanaka said that she never received an apology.
She publicly revealed her real name and identity for the first time in 2024, citing the courage of other survivors, including former Ground Self-Defense Force member Rina Gonoi, who won a lawsuit over her sexual abuse in the GSDF.
According to Tanaka, the abuse began in 2012 after she confessed to the Chilean priest at a church in the city of Nagasaki that she had been sexually assaulted as a child. The priest, she alleged, used the guise of 'spiritual guidance' to repeatedly coerce her into sexual acts and took videos.
'Before I knew it, he took so many videos of me. I asked him to stop, but he threatened me, saying that he is going to expose me by revealing these videos, so I had no other choice but to obey him,' Tanaka said during the news conference.
Tanaka initially was unaware that the relationship was abusive, but after she underwent psychological treatment in 2017, she came to understand the coercive nature of the abuse. She said that she had reported the abuse to the police only to be told that there was nothing they could do because the church had permitted the priest to return to Chile and paid him ¥1 million for an unspecified reason.
Prior to the lawsuit, Tanaka's lawyer had sent a letter to Pope Francis but did not receive a reply.
The Catholic Society of the Divine Word in Japan said the church is not responsible for how priests behave in their private lives, saying they do not acknowledge that priests perform priestly duties all the time, according to a brief submitted to the court in March.
However, they said they acknowledge that priests live devoted to God at all times.
'Even priests who lead a consecrated life may have private time for shopping, reading and sports in their spare time. A priest's status does not mean that he is performing his priestly duties 24 hours a day,' the brief said.
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