2023-10-04 10:29:00
Former boarding school students in Bolivia denounce cases of sexual abuse in the 1970s Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP – 3.10.2021 Almost twenty former students criminally denounced this Tuesday (3) the highest representative of the Society of Jesus in Bolivia, for his alleged inaction in the face of multiple reports of sexual abuse committed by priests in the 1970s, according to the victims’ defense. “It’s time to resolve this at the judicial level, and it will be the judges and not the listening or forgiveness centers (of the Church) who will say what should be done,” the victims’ lawyer, José Luis Gareca, told AFP. See also International With scandal in Portugal, cases of sexual abuse approach 360 thousand in the Catholic Church International Priests are investigated for pedophilia in Bolivia; see what you know about the case International Study reveals almost a thousand cases of sexual abuse in the Swiss Catholic Church The complaint was filed by 18 former students of a Jesuit boarding school in Cochabamba against Father Bernardo Mercado, who has served as Provincial Superior of that order since May 2022 after a long career in the Catholic Church. The Cochabamba Public Prosecutor’s Office will decide in the coming days whether to accept the complaint, in which another 33 former students appear as witnesses. In a statement, the Catholic Church stated that the “crimes that some Jesuits may have committed are their own responsibility.” However, “the Society of Jesus in Bolivia will be the first to provide the possible sanctions they deserve”, says the document. Read also Catholic Church in Portugal will not remove priests suspected of abuse Document reveals that Catholic Church knew about the Holocaust, but remained silent Influential Slovenian priest becomes center of sexual violence scandal that hits Catholic Church Among the evidence presented by the defense is the diary of the Spanish priest Alfonso “Pica” Pedrajas, who died in Bolivia in 2009 at the age of 66. In April, the Spanish newspaper El País published Pedrajas’ notes, in which he confessed to having sexually assaulted around 85 minors, which led to the revelation of more cases. The revelations plunged the Catholic Church in Bolivia into scandal, where 58% of the 12 million inhabitants are Catholic. Since then, the Bolivian Public Ministry has identified at least 17 victims and 35 alleged attackers linked to the Church. Mercado was denounced for failure to act in the crimes of rape, sexual abuse, suffering and sexual harassment. “Refund is a constitutional right (…) if it does not fit in the criminal part, it will have to be in the civil part, but there must be compensation”, said lawyer Gareca.
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