The scandal of sexual assaults in the Catholic Church that shocks Bolivia (and the harsh claim of the government to the Vatican)

What began with the publication of a personal diary has now turned into a wave of denunciations that shocks bolivian.

The courts of this country are investigating 23 religious for allegations of pedophilia, after the diffusion of the personal diary of a Spanish Jesuit who confessed to having abused 85 children while he was a teacher in various schools in Latin America and director of a school in the city of Cochabamba.

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From then on, in recent days there have been protests, reports of abuse after years of silence, and a priest has already been arrested.

While the Prosecutor’s Office advances with the investigations, the Bolivian president, Luis Arcesent a letter to Pope Francis to demand a review of the agreements with the Vatican and warned that it will not admit the entry of foreign priests with a history of abuse.

The Vatican, for its part, sent an expert in investigations of abuses in the church to the South American country.

The victims, for their part, seek “comprehensive reparation” that guarantees not only compensation but also “changes in the institutional structures” of the Church that prevent the abuse of minors in the future, according to what he told BBC Mundo. Pedro Lima Salazara former Jesuit priest who is preparing to testify as a victim and witness before the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office.

The complaints

At the end of April, the Spanish newspaper El País published excerpts from the personal diary of the Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajasalso known as Father “Pica”, who confessed to having abused 85 children during the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a teacher in Latin America and especially as director of the Juan XXIII School in the city of Cochabamba, in central Bolivia.

Although Pedrajas affirms in the newspaper that he notified his superiors and other religious of the abuses, he never received a punishment or was removed from the teaching responsibilities that linked him to the children.

“The greatest personal failure: without a doubt, pedophilia,” he wrote, according to the newspaper published by El País. “I hurt a lot of people (85?), too many.” And he adds: “I counted it so many times.”

Pedrajas died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 62.

The publication of this testimony provoked a wave of complaints before the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office against several priests. The authorities specified that one of them was captured last week.

The victims

Pedro Lima Salazar is the only victim who has spoken publicly so far.

Lima was a Jesuit priest and an assemblyman for the ruling Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) during the Constituent Assembly in 2009. During this process, he has been criticized for not having denounced the abuses when he enjoyed political visibility.

“It is difficult to take this step because of the stigmatization, the misunderstanding. Breaking the silence is the most difficult, it is a lifelong damage“, he told BBC Mundo before participating this Tuesday, May 23, in a meeting of the Bolivian Senate, in which the parliamentarians discussed the possibility of drafting a law to prevent these crimes from prescribing.

Pedro Lima Salazar was a Jesuit priest and will testify before the Prosecutor’s Office as a victim. (GETTY IMAGES).

“It has been an inhuman, cruel and violent abuse, without regard for defenseless human beings. He has been brutal in some cases,” said Lima, who did not want to detail the abuses of which he says he has been a victim.

“In my conscience I am at peace because I believe I am doing the right thing. It drives me to know that everything we are doing is true.”

Although he said that he cannot specify how many victims are involved in the complaints, he indicated that they seek “comprehensive reparation for non-repetition.”

“There are years of seeing the pattern of abuse of power, abuse of conscience and sexual abuse repeat itself. It is an established pattern, they are institutional instances. It is not an isolated case. It is an institution that in its superior hierarchies has allowed this,” he pointed.

In the Church “they have naturalized the abuse and have criminalized the denunciation”, he said. “We want those hierarchies to be broken down.”

The alumni association of the Cochabamba school, where Pedrajas worked as a teacher, also denounced the cover-up by the superior Jesuits.

“We denounce the cover-up on the part of the Society of Jesus, which was fully aware not only because of the repeated confessions of Pedrajas Moreno (…) but also because of the complaints filed by the students,” said Hilarión Baldivieso, president of the former students of the school. John XXIII.

The Jesuits asked for forgiveness shortly after Pedrajas’ diary became known.

“The abuses have caused a deep wound in the victims and the complaints cannot be ignored, even though the priest involved in the events has died,” said Bernardo Mercado, head of the order in Bolivia, at the beginning of May.

At the same time, he announced the immediate suspension of an unknown number of religious for the alleged cover-up by Pedrajas.

Known as “Pica”, Pedrajas worked in Bolivia from 1971 until 2009, when he died at the age of 62 of cancer in a Cochabamba hospital.

“We apologize for the pain caused,” emphasized the authority of the Jesuits, who urged the victims to present their complaints to the Bolivian Public Ministry and offered the psychological and legal support of the Society of Jesus.

“We are really facing crimes that are inconceivable. They cannot go unpunished“Market said.

Facade of the Juan XXIII school, focus of the complaints of abuse. (GETTY IMAGES).

The claim of the Bolivian government to the Vatican

The Bolivian government complained to the Spanish Justice, as well as to the Vatican.

“I write to you shocked and outraged by the facts that have recently been revealed,” said the Bolivian Presidency Minister, María Nela Prada, when publicly reading the letter that the president Luis Arce He sent the Pope, who is a Jesuit.

The letter describes the crimes as “deplorable and aberrational” and ensures that “with absolute impunity they were hidden for years.”

“The Bolivian State reserves the right to admit the entry of new foreign priests and religious into national territory who have a history of sexual abuse against minors, meanwhile, proceed with the revision of the agreements and conventions in force and conclude the negotiation of the agreement between the State and the Holy See, which, in addition, must include precautions so that the events that motivate this note are not repeated,” the letter added.

The Arce government requested that the Bolivian justice “access all the files referring to the complaints” and that it be able to review the background of the foreign religious. “No one with a record should remain as an educator or spiritual guide”.

Bolivia’s attorney general, Wilfredo Chávez, said that as of last week there were complaints against 23 priests allegedly involved in cases of pedophilia, which include “rape of young children between 6 and 12 years of age.”

“These facts and the perpetrators deserve a criminal sanction and we deserve to know the truth,” Chávez said.

The Vatican’s response

President Arce’s letter was published hours after the arrival in Bolivia on Monday of Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, official of the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith, a key man in the Pope’s entourage.

Known as the “super agent”, Bertomeu has specialized in investigating allegations of pedophilia against priests of the Catholic Church in other Latin American countries.

Bertomeu arrived in Bolivia from Paraguay, where he was investigating accusations of the same nature.

However, the Bolivian Episcopal Conference pointed out that Bertomeu’s visit was organized three years ago, implying that it does not respond to the scandal.

During the last days, mothers, fathers and activists gathered outside the headquarters of the Society of Jesus in La Paz to demand justice.

Source: Elcomercio