(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 17 May 2000, Monsignor Julio Forchi declared that some journalists “should undergo a lobotomy to see if that will help them calm down and respect their fellow human beings.” This statement appeared in one of the columns the monsignor has been writing for the last twenty-five years for the “El Oeste” daily […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 17 May 2000, Monsignor Julio Forchi declared that some journalists “should undergo a lobotomy to see if that will help them calm down and respect their fellow human beings.” This statement appeared in one of the columns the monsignor has been writing for the last twenty-five years for the “El Oeste” daily in the Mercedes region, province of Buenos Aires.
Forchi is the Mercedes vicar, second in command in the diocese that was overseen by Monsignor Emilio Ogñenovich until April 2000. In his column, the vicar insultingly referred to journalistic investigations and reports that in one of the home for minors under the supervision of the bishop, residents were subjected to deplorable living conditions. Forchi joined Ogñenovich and Monsignor Desiderio Collino in their attack against journalists (see IFEX alerts of 5 June 2000).
Lobotomy is a surgical procedure used in the 1950s, consisting of the removal of part of the brain’s frontal lobe through the use of medical instruments entering the cranium via the ocular orbits. Less than ten years after it was put to use, the method was abandoned because of the devastating physical and neurological side effects on patients.
When asked about Forchi’s declarations, the president of the Episcopal Commission, Monsignor Estanislao Karlic, stated: “I am sorry that those words were uttered.”
