The Salesian missionary Juan José Gómez, together with several minors in Benin, in an undated image.
The Vatican has opted for the harshest penalty within the Church and, seven years after the first internal complaints, it has expelled Spanish Salesian Juan José Gómez Serrano from the priesthood for raping several minors between 2011 and 2016 in the reception center for street children he ran in Porto Novo, Benin, West Africa.
This is stated in the official communication of the order to those affected.
In the initial complaint, at least a dozen victims were counted, and sources familiar with the process assure that they are "extremely numerous", in a center where 2,000 minors passed a year.
The case, which came to light by information from EL PAÍS in 2018, was denounced by several Spanish volunteers in 2015 at the National Court, tired of not being heard by the order.
There it has been provisionally archived pending further evidence and now they trust that it will be reopened.
Because, after his expulsion from the Salesians, this convicted of pedophilia in ecclesiastical justice has left the residence of the congregation where he had been separated for four years and is simply free in Spain.
The sinister face of father Juanjo
The case of the Hearing, very complex due to the fact that alleged crimes of a Spaniard are investigated in another country with which there is little judicial cooperation, was dismissed due to the lack of evidence and testimonies, since the victims reside in the African country.
In these years, awaiting justice, several have denounced threats and attacks by friends of the pedophile priest in Benin so that they would not collaborate in the process.
“The process has been particularly long and delicate.
I can affirm, with all conscience, that no means or efforts have been spared to find out the truth, ”says Salesian Pier Fausto Frisoli, attorney general of the order, in a letter to those affected to communicate the sentence.
Gómez's sentence is from February 2020, but so far it has not been final, after the expiration of the appeal period.
In his communications, the prosecutor claims to be aware of the extortions that the victims have suffered since they took the step of testifying against the pedophile.
The document details the phases of the canonical investigation, which lasted 14 months and where 30 witnesses - Salesian and lay people - were questioned and “involved” in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Morocco, Peru, Benin, Cameroon, Togo and Burkina Faso. Either because they had some relationship with Gómez, or because at some point they had contact with the reception center of the order in Benin.
Religious orders already admit 126 cases of abuse in Spain
The pedophilia of Spanish priests in other countries is yet to be discovered, because even in the past those who were accused in Spain were simply sent as missionaries.
The relevance of Gómez in Benin and in the world of cooperation was remarkable.
His work as director of the Salesian program to save street children led him to appear in the Spanish media and to be recognized in a documentary on the trafficking of minors in Africa, entitled I'm not for sale.
But there was a hidden face.
Both his victims and some missionaries who dealt with him revealed to this newspaper that his attitude in Porto Novo was dictatorial, exerting blackmail and physical abuse of minors.
Report in 2013
In 2013 two volunteers warned of these practices to order in a report, which also warned of sexual abuse of minors at the center.
Then they did not accuse Gómez of pedophilia, although they already alerted rumors about it.
"We saw him leave his room one day accompanied by a young boy, about 15 years old, who was drying his arms with a towel, as if he had just showered," said one of those volunteers.
Spokesmen for the Salesians affirm that the report "does not appear" and they never received it.
The power of "Father Juanjo" remained intact for three more years.
It was in 2015 when several Spanish volunteers decided to report the abuses to the superiors of the order and, directly, to the National Court.
They took the step after one of the victims revealed to them that “Father Juanjo” was sexually abusing him and several of his companions.
The Provincial of the Salesian region of Francophone West Africa, Faustino García, transferred the complaint to the civil authorities of the African country.
The Salesians admit that they then paralyzed their internal investigation "so as not to interfere" in the investigations of the Porto Novo police.
While these investigations lasted, they did not remove Gómez from his post.
The complainants claim that "Juanjo manipulated the process and manipulated several of the victims and witnesses to retract their initial statement."
"The police investigation was closed at the beginning of 2016 because, according to the African agents, there was no evidence and it was all an invention of the volunteers," they explain.
The order approved the investigation of the Benin police and abandoned the canonical process.
But in May 2016, new complaints from other victims reached the Salesians in Spain.
In addition, then they had news of the investigation opened in the National Court.
The congregation pushed for the reopening of the case in the canonical way and, on this occasion, according to its version, the investigation has already revealed "consistent evidence."
It was referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican disciplinary body that centralizes the investigation of child abuse.
The order finally acted and demanded that Gómez return to Spain to seclude himself in a Salesians' house in Madrid, where he has resided pending the resolution of the file.
“At last the Church recognizes the horror.
It is up to justice "
The case of Juan José Gómez Serrano came to light thanks to a group of Spanish volunteers who worked in Benin in the shelter for street children run by the Salesian.
Worried about what they saw there and the growing suspicions, in 2013 they sent a report to the order in which they alerted of the rumors, although the Salesians maintain that they never received it.
In 2015 they already denounced Gómez in the National Court, where the case is provisionally archived, but now they hope that it can be reopened.
“At first, the order ignored our complaints.
Finally, the Church has already said that this horror happened.
Now it's time for civil justice to do it.
We will continue fighting.
We will not leave the dozens of children alone who have been abused by Father Juanjo and who are now unable to flee from their situation ”, says one of the complainants, Valeriano Barahona.
Along with other volunteers, this aid worker has paid for a lawyer out of his pocket to appear on behalf of one of the victims.
He is one of the abused minors, already of legal age, who will grant a power of attorney to the lawyer in a Spanish consular headquarters so that he can raise new proceedings, provide evidence and even request to bring victims of the priest from Benin to declare in Spain, or what do it electronically.
On the other hand, thanks to the decision of Pope Francis, in December 2019, to lift the pontifical secrecy on cases of abuse, all the documentation of the canonical process with statements of witnesses and victims can be delivered to the Prosecutor's Office and the judge who takes the case in Madrid, if requested.
The Spanish Salesians assure that they already delivered the documentation they had when the cause was opened.
If you know of a case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light, write to us at
abusos@elpais.es
