“Given the situation we live in the school of which I am a director, who has caused deep pain and has caused distrust in our institution, I consider that I must present my resignation as director.” With these words he until this Monday director of the Highlands El Encinar, the religious school where the complaints against his chaplain for sexual abuse occurred, presented his resignation.
The resignation has been made public by a statement from the legionaries of Christ, a religious organization on which this school located in the area of La Moraleja depends. “I want to express to those who feel disappointed and dejected by the disappointment that I share the pain they feel. I apologize for all this pain,” adds Father Jesús María Delgado in his letter.
Under the direction of Delgado, the sexual abuse of Father Marcelino, chaplain of the school and on which several allegations of students weigh. The priest was arrested for these events at the beginning of the month and subsequently released with positions and order of departure from school facilities.
The arrested priest exercised in the past of secretary of the controversial Maciel Maciel, founder of the order and sexual aggressor of minors for decades. The former director explained that the priest was working there “because there was no history of inappropriate behaviors against minors that prevented him from developing his work in an educational center.” He was chaplain of girls camps over the last two years.
The direction of Highlands becomes dependent on Marilú Álvarez, which has 15 years of experience in the education sector and on which Regnum Christi says he has followed “a meticulous process of analysis in all areas of his competences and personal and professional tour”. He currently worked at the same school as Baccalaureate Training Instructor. “His knowledge of Highlands Eak, his leadership and his qualities for observation, listening and integration of teams give him experience and talent to assume his managerial role in a context of renewal and healing,” they add from the legionaries.
This first statement is signed by Javier Cereceda, president of the Directorate Board of the Regnum Christi schools in Spain, who also publishes another second writing, addressed “to all the legionaries of Christ”, on the case of abuse. “The serious facts denounced put us again in front of the reality of suffering caused throughout our history and for which we return with humility to apologize,” he says.
Cereceda recalls that his organization published in 2019 a report on sexual abuse of minors and in 2020 he celebrated a meetings to deal with this issue, of which “reflections, decisions and commitments we assumed as a congregation to fight against the scourge of the abuses against minors” came out. Given the new complaints arising in the school in the case of Father Marcelino, he promises to “redouble our efforts without saving efforts to make a deep review of our institutional culture and to continue promoting a culture of zero abuses.”
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