First conviction for pedophilia against a monk from Montserrat. The monk of the Montserrat Abbey ordained as Brother Gabriel, who even became vice-rector of the Sanctuary, accepted two years in prison this Monday for sexually abusing a minor who was 17 years old. The conviction will not imply his entry into prison as it is derived from an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.
The pact was revealed this Monday by the Monastery of Montserrat in a statement. The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office had not informed last week that the trial would be held, as is the case with the rest of the hearings at the Barcelona Court. The criminal case has taken place in parallel with a restorative justice process to repair the damage caused to the victim in which the abuser has asked for forgiveness from the young man and has favored his “emotional compensation,” the sentence highlights.
The victim came into contact with the Montserrat Abbey through the Young Montserrat meetings, coordinated by the monk. As the years went by, their relationship became closer and the religious became a “personal reference and spiritual guide” for the young man, who told him about his problems.
In May 2019, the monk invited the minor (then they were 39 and 17 years old respectively) to spend the weekend at the monastery. It was then that the confessed abuser took the opportunity to go to the cell where the young man was staying and share a bottle of cava with him to take advantage of his state of semi-intoxication and perpetrate the abuse.
The religious man proposed to the teenager to share the bottle even though the young man told him that he had practically never drank alcohol and had never gotten drunk. The victim, the sentence highlights, could not verbalize his refusal because he had been drinking, due to the age difference, the environment in which he was and because of “the ascendancy” of the pedophile over him. “The monk consciously took advantage of all this,” the resolution adds.
In its statement, the Abbey has “strongly condemned all types of abuse, especially against minors”, and has reported that it will assume compensation of 20,000 euros to the victim for the lack of assets of the pedophile monk. Once the criminal process is concluded, the canonical process will now begin.
Montserrat, an iconic and very symbolic religious space in Catalonia beyond even believers, has also been implicated in cases of pedophilia in the Catholic Church. That of this monk has been the first to come to trial, since of the other two religious accused, one has died and in the second case the abuses are prescribed.
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