When a pedophile priest befriends the mother: "We were six brothers and he abused four"

EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has

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Two girls and four little boys, children of a mother blinded by religion and a father with little authority incapable of contradicting her, who lived in the climate of

impunity that surrounded the Spanish Catholic Church at the beginning of the 70s. This is how the Sans brothers describe “the breeding ground” that allowed “the priest friend of mom” to abuse four of them.

Of the six brothers, three have contacted EL PAÍS to denounce the Claretian priest Hilario Apodaca,

died in Madrid on June 21, 1995, for sexually taking advantage of them in his office in the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on Calle de Ferraz in Madrid.

“When we were little we didn't know anything about what had happened to the others.

One day, as adults, one of us said that Apodaca was a pig, that he handled it.

We looked at each other and realized that he had done it with almost everyone, ”says Cristina, the eldest, who recounts that he suffered the abuse between the ages of 12 and 15.

The youngest brother who claims to have been abused was five.

"We were six and he abused four," laments Cristina.

Apodaca is known for promoting, in 1986, the cause of beatification of Alexia González-Barros, a 14-year-old girl belonging to an Opus Dei numerary family, who died in 1985 due to a malignant tumor.

González-Barros, thanks in part to Apodaca's encouragement, was proclaimed venerable by the Catholic Church in 1994. Currently, she is still in the process of beatification.

She is the girl who inspired the film

, by Javier Fesser, awarded six Goya awards in 2009 and controversial for its critical vision of Opus Dei.

The Sans brothers are part of the hundreds of people who have written to EL PAÍS since 2018 to bring to light the abuses they suffered at the hands of a member of the Church.

Their complaints are included in the three reports with 500 unpublished cases of pedophilia that this newspaper has delivered to the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Vatican and the Ombudsman in the last 12 months.

Without a skullcap and looking out of the image, Hilario Apodaca, a Claretian priest accused by five brothers from Madrid of sexual abuse.

Next to him, Cardinal Suquía, who was successively Bishop of Almería and Málaga, Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and Madrid, and President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

The abuses, says Cristina, occurred in the Apodaca office, adjacent to the church, during confessions.

“For mom, so devout, it was a privilege that the priest confessed us in his office, instead of in the parish,” she explains.

The third sister, T., who prefers to remain anonymous, was between the ages of nine and 10 at the time of the alleged abuse.

She describes the space as “very bright, with lots of plants, better than the gloomy, dark confessional.”

This is how she narrates how everything happened: “We waited at the door, and we went in one by one.

We were inside for a long time.

When it was my turn to pass, I would sit on his knees.

I was naive and never associated it with anything sexual.

I only know that it was very unpleasant.

He was approaching me in an inappropriate way.

He kissed me on the neck and on the cheek, getting very close to the lips,

it touched my chest, it rubbed my hand, it was sticky.

He practically masturbated against me, but with me he never went to the genitals ”.

T. knew that this was not right, and when the time for the “confession” came, he had “no desire” to confess.

“I told my mother that she didn't want to go, but she made me.

It was what she had to do, ”he laments.

“Meanwhile, my father, who sensed something, bought a house far from Ferraz street to get us away from the church and the priest, but it didn't do much good.

Our mother would take the 600 and take us to confession with Father Apodaca”, he narrates.

Her older sister, Cristina, agrees: “Mom was very intelligent, she took degrees in Philosophy and Letters and Psychology.

But she, too, was very religious, a fanatical Roman Apostolic Catholic.

I remember that she put holy water from the acetre in a bottle and then put it in our glasses, she sewed medals of virgins on the bottom of our pants,

and forced us to say the rosary before doing anything.

Of course, I went to daily mass, ”she recalls.

Cristina acknowledges that now it is easier for her to tell her case, since her mother passed away in 2020. "Apodaca manipulated her," she says.

Both Cristina and T. consider that the abuses they suffered are not as serious as those suffered by the fifth brother.

According to them, he was the one who was left the most "destroyed" and "destroyed".

“She masturbated with him, but I have never known how far she put her hands on him.

What I do know is that he suffered a lot and was traumatized.

Then, he has had a very difficult life ”, details the eldest.

"That they abuse you and that they do not believe you is a double shame"

Already as adults, 40 or 50 years old, and once separated from the parish, the Sans brothers told their mother everything.

“Each one of us told him and each and every one of us called us liars,” says T., indignant.

“Our mother was blinded by religion, and convinced that this priest had the truth,” adds the older sister, now 60 and living in southwestern France, where she works as a psychotherapist specializing in psychological trauma.

She accompanies, especially, people who are victims of sexual violence.

"That they abuse you and that they don't believe you is a double shame," she emphasizes.

R., the second brother of the six, who says he has not suffered abuse from Apodaca, affirms that rage fills him when he thinks that his mother could “put his brothers on a platter”.

“Father Apodaca never touched me, but he was repulsive to me.

Because of the way he is, because of the way he talks about him.

If I find out about all this, I'll break his face, ”he laments.

Of his mother, he comments that she was "abducted" by the priest.

“Father Apodaca over here, Father Apodaca over there.

Even in the soup.

She was under his influence, absolutely dependent on him.

It was kind of obsessive."

Regarding the psychological consequences, Cristina explains that aggressions have always been present in her life.

“I have never forgotten it.

When I remember it, I feel like throwing up.

The serious thing about sexual violence is that, in addition to physical, it is a psychological damage.

They make you feel like an object.

That's the damage, and it's very destructive.

It has affected me in my sexual relations and in my relationship with food.

I have always felt enormous shame about my own body.

They are the symptoms that come after being treated like an object, ”she details.

Cristina points out that "those who are most in danger of suffering sexual violence are those who have already experienced it."

She, she says, suffered it again at the age of 16 from her piano teacher.

“In the face of danger, human beings normally escape, hide or face, by generating hormones such as adrenaline or cortisol.

However, there are times when you can neither escape, nor hide, nor face.

Like when you are kissed, groped by your mother's adored priest or the teacher who is going to make you a professional pianist ”, she laments.

Consulted by EL PAÍS, the Claretians have declared that they opened an investigation, but they did not find "any review or information" in their files that links Father Apodaca with complaints of pedophilia.

“As part of the investigation, we have interviewed some of the few people alive who could have known the facts because they coincided in time and in the place where they point.

None of those people had any news about the accusation or about similar events”.

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