EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has
an updated database
with all known cases.
If you know of a case that has not seen the light of day, you can write to us at:
abuses@elpais.es
.
If it is a case in Latin America, the address is:
abusesamerica@elpais.es
.
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The Spanish Catholic Church has had to adapt its response to allegations of abuse, because the one in force until now, denying that they exist, has ceased to be effective given the number of cases that come to light.
Only with the three reports presented by EL PAÍS, the last one last week, there are 500 in one year.
What dioceses, orders and Catholic institutions are doing in many cases is creating protocols that, apparently, mean a change in care for victims and the search for the truth, but in reality they are sometimes a more subtle way of circumventing the problem. .
One of the clearest methods is the one that reduces the response to reporting the case to the Prosecutor's Office, as proof of the will to clarify it, but knowing that since it is prescribed, it will be filed directly.
He's headed for a siding,
although it depends on each prosecutor wanting to investigate more or less to document the case before filing it.
Then the religious institution argues that it has not been possible to prove it and nothing more can be done.
This is what Antonio Gracia, for example, experienced, who denounced abuses between 1989 and 1990 at the Montearagón Catholic school in Zaragoza, from the Fomento organization, linked to Opus Dei: "They have never had the slightest intention of listening, investigating, recognize the damage and repair it, I have felt neglected, they have not taken me seriously, nor have they believed me”.
A year after denouncing it, it is worse than at the beginning.
who denounces abuses between 1989 and 1990 at the Montearagón Catholic school in Zaragoza, from the Fomento organization, linked to Opus Dei: "They have never had the slightest intention of listening, investigating, recognizing the damage and repairing it, I have felt ignored, I They have taken me seriously, nor have they believed me”.
A year after denouncing it, it is worse than at the beginning.
who denounces abuses between 1989 and 1990 at the Montearagón Catholic school in Zaragoza, from the Fomento organization, linked to Opus Dei: "They have never had the slightest intention of listening, investigating, recognizing the damage and repairing it, I have felt ignored, I They have taken me seriously, nor have they believed me”.
A year after denouncing it, it is worse than at the beginning.
Gracia, 40, recounts that she suffered abuse from her tutor and teacher of first and second grade when she was between six and seven years old.
The school is part of the Fomento de Centros de Enseñanza network, with 35 schools in Spain, which has a "pastoral care agreement with Opus Dei."
Point 10 of its educational principles details that "the Prelature of Opus Dei, at the request of Fomento de Centros de Enseñanza, helps to keep alive the Christian identity of the schools, present in the founding purpose of Fomento."
The Work also clarifies that the defendant, Francisco Ramos, a layman, does not belong and has not belonged to Opus Dei.
According to Antonio Gracia's complaint, and later ratified before the Zaragoza Prosecutor's Office in March, the teacher “touched me under my clothes, gave me kisses, sometimes on the mouth, I felt his saliva and his breath and it made me disgusted, he kissed me all over my body, he licked me.”
“He'd put his hand in my pants, touch my genitals, and I'd wonder, 'What's going on?'
He would do it sometimes even in class, he would call you to the table and put his hand under it.
This happened, that I know for sure, to another child, and I think more.
I never told anyone, I told my parents recently."
The school reports that the teacher, who was at the center for almost 40 years, from 1981 to 2020, and is already retired, denies the facts.
Antonio Gracia photographed in Barcelona.
Gianluca Battista
EL PAÍS included this case in the first report of pedophilia delivered to the Church in December 2021. Opus Dei asked to be able to contact the complainant, who agreed.
Then began what Antonio Gracia supposed was a process of attention, investigation and repair of the damage.
“I had a telephone conversation with the director of the school, but from there everything was by email.
They told me they would report it to the Prosecutor's Office and it seemed fine to me.
I asked for a personal meeting and they told me that it was better to leave it for later, when the Prosecutor's Office finished its work.
I asked that they ask the professor about the accusation, but they said that they did not want to interfere in the work of the Prosecutor's Office.
I already saw clearly that it was a ploy to do nothing and I got fed up, then I didn't want to see them or waste any more time”.
But Gracia had another surprise when he received the summons from the Zaragoza Prosecutor's Office.
It was signed by the chief prosecutor, Felipe Zazurca, who is a member of Opus Dei and also a former student of the same school, where he has given talks.
Then another prosecutor took a statement, who 18 days later filed the case for having prescribed.
To Juan Cuatrecasas, president of Infancia Robada and whose son was abused at the Gaztelueta school of Opus Dei in Leioa, Bizkaia, it seems "a shame": "That a chief prosecutor attached to Opus Dei intervenes in a case in which the accused is linked to Opus Dei does not give it any criteria of credibility or independence.
This continues to happen in this country, and it should not be repeated.”
Juan Herminio Duarte, director of the center, faced with the perplexity and distrust of Antonio Gracia for this fact, explains that "more than strange,
it's coincidence."
"Any Development school in the face of a case of abuse takes it to the Prosecutor's Office, regardless of who the prosecutor is," he reasons.
In the case of Gaztelueta, says Cuatrecasas, something similar happened and he already declared it then to the media: "The chief prosecutor of the Audiencia de Bizkaia was linked to Opus Dei, her children went to that school, she had given talks in clubs of the Construction site.
My opinion is that the prosecutor behaved in the process more as a defense attorney for the defendant than as a prosecutor."
This trial ended in 2020 with a firm sentence from the Supreme Court.
“The chief prosecutor of the Bizkaia Court was linked to Opus Dei, her children went to that school, she had given talks in clubs of the Work.
My opinion is that the prosecutor behaved in the process more as a defense attorney for the defendant than as a prosecutor."
This trial ended in 2020 with a firm sentence from the Supreme Court.
“The chief prosecutor of the Bizkaia Court was linked to Opus Dei, her children went to that school, she had given talks in clubs of the Work.
My opinion is that the prosecutor behaved in the process more as a defense attorney for the defendant than as a prosecutor."
This trial ended in 2020 with a firm sentence from the Supreme Court.
The director of the school, about Gracia's complaints about the treatment he received, explains: "At all times I told him that I was sorry for the suffering that this had caused him and I offered him my support and collaboration for whatever he wanted, but later he no longer wanted to. have a personal meeting.
He says that she postponed that appointment, despite the fact that the complainant asked for it, "for complying with the protocol", but then he "cut off the communication".
The truth is that, in any case, they have not contacted him again to inform him of the result of the process.
But it is that Duarte admits that they have not carried out any investigation and his protocol does not contemplate anything more than the complaint, no reparation process.
He refers that, at Gracia's request, he spoke with the director of the time, "that he was absolutely surprised by the subject."
He also points out that "no one has said anything,
Regarding the core of the conflict, if you believe the complainant and acknowledge the damage, explain your point of view: “I do not recognize the damage.
I do not doubt Antonio, and I am truly sorry, but I have listened to the professor, who was well known and loved, and I do not doubt him either, and what the Prosecutor's Office says is that it is prescribed.
My protocol goes as far as this and for us it ends here”.
The Pope has made it clear that the victims have the right to compensation, but in many cases it is information that is not given to them.
"Neither did they propose it to me, nor did I say it, because I did not want to make it seem that I was only looking for money or that they accused me of that, on top of that they create that discomfort for you," Gracia reasons.
This case is more complex because it is a private Catholic school, which does not formally belong to the structure of the Church, and the defendant is a layman,
foreign to the canonical rules.
However, in the case of Gaztelueta, where the convicted person is also a layman, the Vatican has even ordered Opus Dei to repeat the investigation, given the family's complaints about how it was carried out and how it was archived.
In the first report delivered by EL PAÍS, a year ago, there are two cases that affect members of Opus Dei.
One testimony accuses EAS, in Murcia, in 1980. The second, to MFA, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the seventies.
The prelature, which has carried out an internal investigation into pedophilia, has not wanted to reveal how many cases it has on record.
He explains that he has sent the information to the law firm that in February began an audit commissioned by the Episcopal Conference.
This firm, Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, is chaired by a member of Opus Dei, and for this reason has been accused of lack of credibility by associations of victims of abuse.
07:19
One year after the EL PAÍS report that uncovered pedophilia in the Catholic Church
If you know of a case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light of day, write to us with your complaint at
abusos@elpais.es
.
If it is a case in Latin America, write to us at
abusesamerica@elpais.es
.
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