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Legionaries of Christ publish names of priests accused of sexual abuse

2021-03-22T19:43:37.017Z


A total of 17 accusations were registered in Mexico, eight in the United States, six in Spain, and four in Brazil. The congregation has lowered the number of perpetrators from 33 to 27


The founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel, with Pope John Paul II, in a file image.

The Legionaries of Christ have released this Monday the list of names of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors within the congregation.

In a series of documents issued, one of the most powerful religious orders in the world has detailed the cases of pedophilia that they have recorded from their founding in 1941 to the present day.

Many of the names appear coded with numbers - depending on the country in which it happened and what the law establishes on its disclosure - but many others have come to light for the first time.

Former Spanish priest Óscar Turrión or American Timothy Meehan appear on the new list of those denounced for pedophilia.

An internal investigation by the Legionaries of Christ, published in December 2019, recognized that 33 priests had been reported for sexually abusing 175 minors.

Of that total, about 60 victims corresponded to the founder of the order, the Mexican Marcial Maciel.

Now, after “reviewing and studying again” the information, the congregation has lowered the number of perpetrators to 27. “In two of the cases it has not been possible to confirm that it was a sexual abuse of a minor,” he says. the

2020 Annual Report. Truth, Justice and Healing

.

"There are three cases whose investigation has not been concluded," he adds.

And a sixth, in which the complainant ended up admitting "that it had not been sexual abuse."

The list published this Monday develops the cases by territories.

A total of 17 accusations of sexual abuse were registered in Mexico, eight in the United States, six in Spain, four in Brazil, two in Italy, two in Chile and another two in the Endina region (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador).

Some accused priests appear on the list of two or more countries, since they accumulated complaints in several territories.

This is the case of the Mexican Vladimir Reséndiz, sentenced to six and a half years in prison for abusing male minors in a seminary in northern Italy.

Reséndiz was also accused by a person in Venezuela, where the Legion sent him after the complaints in Italy.

Of the cases registered in the United States, four new names have come to light.

There appears the case of the Spanish Óscar Juan Turrión Pablo, former rector of the María Mater Ecclesiae seminary in Rome, who hung up his habits in 2017 after revealing that he had a hidden life with a woman with whom he had two children.

According to the congregation, he was denounced for the first time in 2019 for allegedly sexually abusing a student at the Apostolic College of the Immaculate Conception in New Hampshire (United States) in the early nineties.

An internal investigation corroborated the accusation two years ago, which was finally admitted by the order.

"The Legionaries of Christ have apologized for the abuse and have sought to help the victim," acknowledges the statement on Monday.

The other three names belong to renowned American priest Timothy Meehan, former seminarian David Consoli and Jeremiah Michael Spillane, convicted of

grooming, in

addition to four other priests whose names were already known.

The list of cases in Mexico, the most extensive, only publishes with first and last names the priests publicly denounced by the victims.

This is the case of Fernando Martínez, accused of sexual abuse of eight girls in a Cancun school between 1991 and 1993. Or of Antonio Rodríguez Sánchez, a case revealed by EL PAÍS in January 2020, accused of abusing a 12-year-old boy at the Ajusco seminary in Mexico City in the eighties.

Also on the list is the former Spanish priest José María Sabín —with his first name only—, denounced for abusing the Mexican Reséndiz in the same seminary.

Most of the cases reported by the Legion in Mexico register “several victims”.

The information published on Spain gives an account of six cases of child abuse from 1941 to the present.

Except for Marcial Maciel, the names of the other five priests have been hidden for "legal reasons" inherent to the current legislation on data protection, the congregation has justified.

Three of the defendants also accumulated complaints in Mexico, as is the case of Sabín and three are currently facing a canonical process.

All are known various victims.




Source: elparis

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