Juan Cuatrecasas (Bilbao, 1996) suffered extremely serious sexual assaults when he was starting secondary school at the all-male Opus Dei Gaztelueta school, located in Leioa and financed with public funds. The events occurred between 2008 and 2010. His family began to denounce him in 2011 and publicly in 2012 amidst intense pressure and messages that he was falsely accusing the perpetrator, José María Martínez Sanz, a member of staff who was the teenager’s teacher and also his preceptor or tutor. He was a relative of an important public official of the time. Gaztelueta went on to say that the responsibility for the victim’s very serious state of health lay with his own family. In 2018, after reaching the age of majority, Cuatrecasas went to court again and the facts were proven in a trial at the Bizkaia Court and in 2020 the Supreme Court reduced the sentence, but without questioning the veracity of the original complaint. The new maneuvers around Opus Dei were of no use. The Catholic Church, formally, still does not recognize what happened, although a resolution to the open canonical process is expected shortly. But Cuatrecasas has already won. This Friday, in English, the now lawyer with two master’s degrees spoke 1,310 kilometers from Gaztelueta, at the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. She has told her truth before representatives from dozens of countries and is already a reference for other “survivors” of cases of sexual violence and abuse in childhood.
The trip to Strasbourg is the final icing on the cake of the journey that, for years, both he and his father, of the same name, and his mother, Ana, have followed. The three lead an association called Stolen Childhood and that, at least, has He has already sent about sixty episodes to the Vatican. Juan Cuatrecasas is no longer the name that journalists had to avoid publishing to minimize retaliation. Nor the boy who had to testify in his own trial behind a screen while the aggressor smiled at the photographers and had at his disposal a website hired by Opus Dei to offer an ‘alternative’ version of what happened in Gaztelueta. His identity and a large photograph of him – in black and white – are part of an exhibition that has toured Europe and also Bilbao, Basauri and Madrid. There are victims of sexual violence within the framework of the Catholic Church but also in sports or in other areas. The title of the collection of images is ‘Shame’, the English word for ‘shame’. But there is consensus that this ‘shame’ does not have to be that of the victims, who prefer to classify themselves as “survivors.” The author of the portraits is the Italian Simone Padovani. And he disagrees: he chooses the word “hero” for the protagonists of ‘Shame’.
“Let shame change sides,” reasoned the Basque parliamentarian of the PNV Maitane Ipiñazar, who has also accompanied the family on their trip to the European institutions and who has endorsed this sentence of Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman drugged and raped. by her husband and by other men and that has shaken consciences. The Government of Spain has also sent a representative to the event, Andrea García Vidal, general director of the Ministry of Youth and Children. In view of the Spanish victims present, he has committed to improving state regulations for the protection of children and adolescents.
A Christmas card and a meeting with the Pope
Cuatrecasas has spoken in Strasbourg, but has also previously traveled to Paris, to the French National Assembly. And to Vitoria, to the Basque Parliament, which approved a report with proposals. Or to Madrid. The young man was in Congress during the presentation of the Ombudsman’s report on this scourge and has complained that some deputies preferred to entertain themselves with their mobile phones rather than attend to the explanations. And he has said that Vox preferred to talk about ETA than about the Catholic Church. In these years the family has also been in Bern, Brussels or Rome. There, but not in the Vatican, he recorded a documentary for Disney +. It was June 28, 2022. He and other Spanish-speaking young people met with the pontiff of the Catholic Church, Francisco.
-How was it?
–Having the possibility to sit in front of the pope and denounce the abuses and re-victimization that I suffered was important. The stay during recording in Rome was pleasant. Although not everything was pleasant. Although the Pope had a cordial and close attitude, he released some statements and responses typical of archaic times, leaving aside the problems of today. Positions on sex, abortion, feminism, LGTBI rights and, of course, pedophilia in the institution he presides, left much to be desired. However, on a more particular level, he promised to personally take care of my case and find a solution, an issue that two years later has still not come.
Years before, the pontiff had already sent a Christmas card to the family. The letter arrived at a church in Logroño, from which they contacted the final recipients, who were unaware of its contents, perfectly hidden in an envelope within another envelope. The communication was sent to La Rioja. The Cuatrecasas moved to Haro because Bilbao was hostile to them. They literally had to flee from the pressure after having reported what Spanish legislation then classified as “abuses” and which are now considered “sexual assaults.” It was in 2013. These events also made it difficult for the victim to continue his academic career normally and for him to miss some courses. The sexual assault was accompanied by bullying from other classmates tolerated by the preceptor. Even at the trial, many of those young people testified in favor of the professor.
In that environment, the victim’s veracity continued to be questioned, not only reflected in a final sentence but also validated by all the professionals who treated him as a child. He no longer hides that he even tried to commit suicide. The Gaztelueta school, which contributed to the defense of its former teacher in the trial by instigating former students and teachers to sign notarial acts exonerating him, even called a press conference when there was already a court ruling to show that the complaint was false. He seasoned it with a guided tour of the office where the events occurred to insist on that thesis. This is the “revictimization” that the young man criticizes in each of his speeches.
-Do you keep the faith?
-It’s difficult.
Cuatrecasas is not a believer. He understands that what has happened to him “influences” that decision, but concedes that there are many more factors that underpin it. His parents, however, maintain a deep religious sense. They give vital importance to having a canonical pronouncement in their favor even though it may add little or nothing to the truth after there is a final ruling from the criminal jurisdiction. Stolen Childhood, the association, has also held meetings with the Episcopal Conference. They have a banner in which they remember that the Council of Europe approved a resolution at the beginning of 2024 for the recognition and comprehensive reparation of the victims and in which they ask “why the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy does not care for and repair its victims.” .
The years-long journey on this case in Gaztelueta has led this family to meet victims from other places. One of those people who have appeared on that path is Ciro Molina, who suffered sexual violence as a child at the hands of his parish priest. He also mentions “revictimization.” “The abuse itself is serious, but the social terrorism that came afterwards was also serious. Society’s reaction was not one of support for my family and me, but rather one of condemnation,” he says. Canarian, he did not hesitate to settle in the north of the peninsula to meet the Cuatrecasas. Now he organizes mobilizations, denounces his case and others. Coming forward is a “liberation” after years of “evolutionary blockage” and even suicide attempts.
Another Canarian, Eva Díaz Bethencourt, leads Protect Children, an entity based in the Nordic countries. He presented in Strasbourg the results of a survey on sexual violence against minors. “If we do not break the silence officially, not only on an individual level, and we do not make it easier for victims and survivors to access justice and resources, we are really not allowing their recovery,” he maintains. Dozens of speakers have spoken in Strasbourg, from ministers to more victims, including some from outside Europe, such as a woman from Jamaica. The model of care for victims in Switzerland, promoted by the Guido Fuiri foundation, behind the Justice Initiative and the ‘Shame’ exhibition, has been exposed in more detail. “It was a taboo topic, something silenced. Now there are new dimensions much closer for the victims. Europe is about to wake up,” the mother from Cuatrecasas congratulated herself. “I can no longer be safe from sexual abuse, but from this platform I ask the Council of Europe and the Member States to do everything possible so that their children can be safe. The future of the European Union passes through childhood. I ask the European Union to protect her,” her son said at the end of his parliament.
The Council of Europe, which hosted the event, brings together 46 states of the continent. It is much broader than the European Union, for example. Here are Switzerland, Ukraine or the United Kingdom. However, it does not support all countries. They must be comparable democracies. In 2022, for example, Russia was expelled as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. Vatican City is one of those uninvited states, although it has “observer” status. In fact, one of the previous pontiffs, John Paul II, gave a speech in 1988 immortalized in a painting at the site.
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