EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has a data base updated with all known cases. If you know of a case that has not seen the light of day, you can write to us at: [email protected]. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: [email protected].
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Pain, shame and dismay. That is what Pope Francis feels about the pedophilia scandal that has been shaking the Bolivian Church for a month and a half. In a letter in which he responds to the one sent to him by Bolivian President Luis Arce, the Pontiff says he is moved by the new cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by priests that have recently come to light. Most were perpetrated by members of the Society of Jesus, a religious order to which Francis belongs, and covered up by the ecclesiastical hierarchs of the South American country. “I express to him my pain, my feelings of shame and dismay. Thinking about the nefarious actions of those priests, and also about the negligence of those who should have watched. I feel moved and impressed, because the ministers of the Church must be custodians and guarantors of the good and the future of the young generations”, says the letter, dated May 31 and read to the media on Wednesday afternoon (in Spanish dawn) by the Minister of the Presidency of Bolivia, María Nela Prada.
The media and political earthquake in Bolivia due to the problem of pedophilia in the Bolivian Church began on April 30, after the publication in EL PAÍS of a report that revealed the story of the Spanish Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas, who admitted in a secret newspaper having abused of dozens of children in Bolivian schools run by the Company and told how his superiors covered it all up. In the weeks that followed the publication of the article, the abuse scandal shook the country and jumped onto the political agenda: the Jesuits cautiously removed eight former senior officials for cover-up, the Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation, the Government presented a preliminary draft of law to create a truth commission and President Arce wrote a letter to the Pope on May 22 to request access to all the files on cases of pedophilia committed by clergymen in Bolivian territory. “I am writing to you, shocked and outraged by the events that have recently been revealed in our Plurinational State of Bolivia, based on the investigation by the newspaper EL PAÍS of Spain, entitled Diary of a Pedophile Priest”, Arce explained in the letter, in which he also announced that his country would reserve the right to admit the entry of new foreign priests with a history of sexual abuse against minors until “the review proceeds” of the Agreements with the Holy See.
Now Francisco’s response is made public, just hours before he was discharged from hospital this Friday morning after being operated on for an abdominal hernia. “I have read your letter, and I thank you for the clarity and deference with which you share your concern, indignation and rejection, yours and the citizens of that beloved nation due to the deplorable events that have affected, and continue to affect, abused people. sexually by members of the Church,” he writes. Pedophilia “continues to be one of the greatest challenges for the Church of our time”, acknowledges the Pope, and promises to collaborate with the Bolivian authorities so that the victims find justice. “In this sense, I express to you, Mr. President, my firm desire to respond with the promise of the total availability of the Church to work together with the Government of your country. I ask the Lord to help us to generously fulfill our duty to repair injustices and to always be faithful to the task of protecting those who are the favorites of Jesus”, concludes the Pontiff.
The Minister of the Presidency thanked the note sent by Francisco and, as she stated, the Bolivian Government agrees “with several of the appreciations that it expresses”, such as describing these acts as crimes. Ella nela ella has pointed out that Bolivia needs to strengthen the “control mechanisms” to prevent clergymen with a record of sexual crimes in other countries from accessing Bolivian territory. “Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of the official reception of this note that has come to us from the Vatican, will proceed to make contact through our diplomatic representation to establish the joint work mechanism, as we had stated in relation to to the review of the background of the priests of the Catholic Church who are in our country”, declared Nela.
The publication of Francisco’s letter comes one day after the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB) announced the keys to what the general investigation of cases of abuse within it will be, launched as a result of recent revelations. It will create four commissions: one dedicated to listening to victims, another for research, one for communication and another for prevention and training. “The objective” is “to prevent crimes of abuse in its different forms, thus reaffirming the commitment to promote, care for and defend the most vulnerable”, the CEB clarified during the presentation of the work teams. The Bolivian bishops have not informed if they will financially compensate the victims or if they will open their files to collect all the information on these crimes committed in the past.
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