The Church has opened a large investigation, unprecedented in Spain, of 251 members of the clergy and some lay people from religious institutions accused of abusing minors, which EL PAÍS has compiled and investigated in the last three years. They make up a 385-page report that this newspaper delivered to Pope Francis on December 2, taking advantage of the Pontiff's direct contact with journalists on his trip to Greece. An assistant of Francis picked up the dossier and when he returned from the trip the Pope moved quickly. He sent it the following week to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the institution that centralizes the investigation of pedophilia throughout the Catholic world and is directed by the Spanish Jesuit Luis Ladaria. This newspaper also delivered the study that week to the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE),Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona. Omella immediately transmitted it to the ecclesiastical court of Barcelona, where it was registered, to initiate the investigation, although later the investigations will have to branch out according to the competent entity: they affect 31 religious orders and 31 dioceses. The mechanism is already in place, although the opening of an investigation, in reality, is an almost automatic act required by the canonical code in the face of any credible indication.although the opening of an investigation, in reality, is an almost automatic act required by the canonical code before any credible indication.although the opening of an investigation, in reality, is an almost automatic act required by the canonical code before any credible indication.
Three victims of sexual abuse in religious schools tell their story
Video: LUIS MANUEL RIVAS / ANTONIO NIETO
The oldest case in the report dates from 1943, and the most recent, from 2018. All are unpublished, except for 13 already published, which have been included because new complaints have arisen against these clergymen. If those 251 are added to those that were already known until now and that this newspaper has counted, the only existing record in Spain in the absence of official data from the Church or the authorities, they amount to at least 602 cases - each one refers to one defendant - and 1,237 victims since the 1930s. In any case, the strictest criterion has been applied to calculate the number of victims: only the direct testimonies of those affected and witnesses. Most of the stories speak of pedophiles who abused dozens of children and behaviors that were an "open secret."A common case is that of teachers who sexually assaulted the entire class, with several courses under their care and who spent years in one or more schools. Estimates such as those used by experts in studies by independent commissions in other countries would multiply the figure to several thousand.
So far the EEC has reiterated that it does not know how many cases of abuse have occurred in Spain, although it assures that there are "very few". It is not going to open a general investigation and is limited to asking the victims to come to its assistance offices, which were opened a year ago, but it assures that it has barely registered any complaints. On the contrary, EL PAÍS has already received more than 600 messages in the complaint email that it opened three years ago. Many of those cases have already been published, another 251 have been included in the report, and the rest are still under investigation. The only figure provided by the Episcopal Conference had to be requested from Doctrina de la Fe: it informed him this year that since 2001 it has received 220 cases from Spain. The EL PAÍS report collects more in three years than the congregation in those 20 and exceeds those statistics.
Once the EL PAÍS dossier was known, Pope Francisco and Omella had a conversation. The Vatican, as it usually does when the complaints are so numerous and do not belong to a single order, diocese or specific abuser, will supervise through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the entire process carried out by the CEE. Rome will expect results, which according to its own code, should arrive in no more than three months. The Episcopal Conference has preferred not to make statements for the moment. On the other hand, the vast majority of cases, 77%, affect religious orders, which are not under the authority of the bishops. The main congregations, informed by EL PAÍS of the complaints that concern them, have already opened an investigation.
Jesús Gutiérrez, who denounces abuses in the old college of the Augustinians of Santander, one of the cases included in the EL PAÍS report, in front of a church in this city, in the Nueva Montaña neighborhood.
The Marists, one of the entities that accumulates the most cases, reacted in this way through a statement from their Iberian province: “We condemn these terrible events and we apologize to the victims for not having been able to protect them, to take care of them and for not having managed appropriately those situations. We have opened an investigation to clarify the events that occurred. The victims are our priority, we believe in their word and we are at their disposal for whatever they need ”. Most of the major orders were voiced in similar terms, although some remain reluctant. For example, a person in charge who did not want to identify himself from the paúles of Zaragoza, when presenting a case of his order, replied: “We will not investigate it. I have never heard anyone speak ill of this person. I am not interested in the subject. This is dirty. "La Salle also refuses to open a canonical investigation, as is his obligation, and has only specified that he has already transferred his cases to the Prosecutor's Office, where their safe destination is to be archived when prescribed.
The norms approved by Francisco since 2019 to end the cover-up oblige any bishop or religious superior to open an internal investigation regarding any information on a possible case. The Vatican's rules are very clear, summarized in the vademecum published in July 2020. The information of a case, the
notitia de
delicto
, is “all information about a possible crime that reaches the Ordinary or the Hierarch in any way. It does not have to be a formal complaint ”(Article 9). It can arrive in any way, also through the media (Article 10). Even without precise data, it must be studied and if it is plausible to open a preliminary investigation (articles 13 and 16), which must then be sent to Rome, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (article 69). Article 14 of
the Pope's
motu proprio
of May 2019,
Vos est lux mundi
, specifies that the investigation will last a maximum of 90 days.
All these norms have been disregarded in numerous cases in the Spanish Church by orders and dioceses, which, given the information of a case, limited themselves to saying that they were not aware of it, did not open any investigation or inform the Vatican. Now they will no longer be able to do so, as the Vatican monitors the process and ensures that it will guarantee that these cases delivered by THE COUNTRY will be investigated, the pertinent responsibilities will be assumed and the claims of the victims will be addressed. In many cases, the accused are still active and in this way the appropriate precautionary measures can be taken.
The investigation into the cases presented by EL PAÍS is currently limited to the canonical judicial process, and obviously, it assumes that the dioceses and religious orders are investigating themselves. The EEC continues to refuse to create an independent commission to listen to victims and to promote a total revision of the past. Other bishops' conferences have already started them, in the United States, France or Germany. They are organizations that do not question the testimony of those affected - in most cases, the accused have died - and simply assess their credibility, collect their stories and obtain figures and conclusions about what happened. The number of complaints arriving in Rome from Spain, although it is somewhat lower than that of other countries, does not allow us to think that the situation could be very different from that of places like Germany or France.
In the report delivered to the ecclesiastical authorities by this newspaper, the personal data of the victims or references that can identify them do not appear, to guarantee their anonymity. In any case, EL PAÍS has made itself available to the Vatican to facilitate contact with the victims and that they can give a statement, if they so wish. The Holy See, after dozens of investigations and the summit on pedophilia that Pope Francis convened in Rome in February 2019, assumes this type of process with greater normality. In fact, the Pontiff applauded on Wednesday "the dignity" of the French bishops for having carried out a historical investigation into the abuses in the Gallic Church.
Behind each of these figures there is a story, and in the oldest cases, a mosaic of what life was like in some schools and boarding schools during the Franco regime. THE COUNTRY will count them from now on. They are stories like that of Antonio Carpallo, 81, in Seville; Jesús Gutiérrez, 77, in Santander; or Emilio Boyer, 55, in Valencia, who have agreed to tell their memories in the video that accompanies this article. Carpallo was, and still is, a soccer fan. You can recite the FC Sevilla line-up. He also remembers the one from more than six decades ago, when he lived in the Hogar de San Fernando, a Salesians' boarding school in Seville. Orphan of father and mother, Carpallo entered there in the 1950s. He recounts how one day, at 16, the prefect Rafael Conde “kidnapped” him:“He came to my bed and touched me as and where he wanted. No rush or nervousness. It was my turn at the same time that he asked me if I wanted to see Sevilla-Valencia. I was a child and an orphan, how could I tell him that I didn't want to watch football? The only answer he could give him was: "Don Rafael, of course I want to go to the game." "He rewarded me by sending me to see it, which I think I remember ended with a 4 to 0," he shares. She assures that physical violence was the order of the day at that boarding school: “One morning the priest who was sleeping in a corner of the bedroom where I was fed me. When he passed me I changed position and he thought he was awake. He started giving me everything he could and more. I don't know how he didn't blind me ”, he describes.On another occasion, he relates that his brother was locked in a room and between three religious beat him with kicks and punches.
Antonio Carpallo, who denounces abuses in a Salesian school in Seville, one of the cases included in the EL PAÍS report, at his home in Madrid.Samuel Sánchez
The Salesians have communicated that they have already begun an investigation of this and the rest of the cases, "regardless of whether they are from years ago."
Regarding the religious that Carpallo points out, the congregation affirms that Conde died in 1976 and that he is gathering more information.
"In some of the cases that appear there are very vague reference data, but they will be studied anyway," explains a spokesman for the Salesians.
The EL PAÍS dossier contains the fundamental data of each case and also the names of ecclesiastical officials who were able to cover up the abuses. In addition, in an annex, this newspaper has included a list of senior officials of the Spanish Church suspected of having hidden or silenced cases that have already been published in recent years. Among them are more than twenty cardinals and bishops. The possible concealment must also be investigated, as it is a crime covered by canon law punishable by expulsion from office if the causes are serious: “It includes [in these serious causes] the negligence of the bishops in the exercise of their office, particularly in relation to cases of sexual abuse committed against minors and vulnerable adults ”, it reads on the
motu proprio
from Pope Francis
Like a love letter.
"I remember his drool on top ..."
Another story is that of Jesús Gutiérrez, 77 years old. He was born in Santander into a postwar working class family. He was the youngest of four siblings, and the only one who had the opportunity to study beyond what was required. At the age of 12, the Augustinian community of the city hired him to substitute their porters. In exchange, they offered him high school studies and food. "That was my possibility of accessing culture," Gutiérrez argues. “The first two years seemed spectacular to me. Great notes. Until Father Eliseo Bardón [who died last January at the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo in Madrid] became secretary ", he narrates. It was then, in 1959, when his two-year ordeal began: “He called me to help him with office tasks, but it was all a lie. He kissed me.I remember his drool on top ... One day he began to grope me in such a way that I ejaculated. I cried a lot, and he offered to pay me. "
Gutiérrez did not say anything to anyone. Not even the director of the community, the late father Javier Gorrochategui Múgica, because he also accuses him of having abused him: “He groped me, but he himself realized what I was trying to do, apologized and stopped. However, this action closed the door for me to tell him what was happening to me with Father Eliseo, because if he also had these deviations, that complaint was highly unlikely to prosper. " What he did was leave the community, once he finished elementary high school. “I swallowed it all by myself. Fortunately, he had a very strong and orderly mind. If not, you know, "he concludes, proud of himself.
The decade of the seventies is the one that collects the most cases. Emilio Boyer, 55, also denounces abuses in that decade in the Augustinians of Valencia, both physical and sexual. He accuses fray Balbino, a priest of the college of the order, now deceased. "I was nine years old and he was leading me down the path of bitterness," laments Boyer. He says that he beat him, punished him and suspended him. “One day, he and I were in a classroom alone and the guy took off his underpants. I was nine years old, but I knew something strange was going on. 'Ay, Emilio, if you wanted, you could get better grades…', he told me. Total, that hugs me, with all the tripe there. He had closed the classroom. I started running and he was chasing me. If he had slapped me, I would have ended up giving him a blowjob and whatever. I was so scared that he would hit me ... But then it didn't happen.He opened the door and let me out, ”he says. “After that episode he kept hitting me. It was the worst year of my life, ”emphasizes Boyer. EL PAÍS has proven that it is not the only one: it has found another victim and two more witnesses who relate similar memories of Fray Balbino, in the seventies and eighties.
The Augustinians, consulted about these two cases in Santander and Valencia, condemn the abuses and reply that they were not aware of any of them.
They're going to investigate him and go through his files.
"After the judicial process there is always a request for forgiveness to the victims, a removal of the religious from any pastoral activity and the offer of help to the victims in whatever they may need," they explain.
Emilio Boyer, who denounces abuses in the Augustinian College of Valencia, one of the cases included in the EL PAÍS report, in front of the façade of the center. Samuel Sánchez
The report delivered to the Vatican is the result of a long work that this newspaper began in October 2018, with the beginning of an investigation of the abuses in the Spanish Church. More than 600 people have written to the complaint email that he opened then, telling their stories. Listening to them, attending to each one, trying to publish each case, has been a huge task. Behind every message is a person with a painful account of events that happened decades ago and often never told anyone before. Telling those memories of a broken childhood is the first consolation, but knowing the truth is his greatest desire. After years of searching the internet for the person who abused them, and seeing that he is still in a school, or in a children's sports team, or that he even receives tributes. And in fact,they often feel guilty for not having spoken, for not having had the courage to tell. But it is almost always prescribed, and when they go to Church they report that the usual thing is to receive a new humiliation, and rejection. To try to change something, they have written to EL PAÍS.
If you know of any case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light of day, write us with your complaint to
abusos@elpais.es