A child sexual predator priest went through Barcelona parishes with impunity and undercover for three decades

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

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"Every night he took one," recalls Oriol Boguña.

"Once he told me: promise me, Oriol, that if one day I ask you to sleep with me you will say no."

The next time he called him he refused to go.

So he called another.

“I will never forget the look on his face when he looked at me as he went to his apartment.

This boy died very young, from drugs.

He was very fragile and suffered a lot ”.

A whole generation of children from Caldes D'Estrac, 40 kilometers from Barcelona, ​​was marked between 1970 and 1975 by the abuses of the priest Josep Vendrell Cortasa, according to at least six former students of his at the school and boarding school in the town, where he was director, as well as parish priest of the church of Santa María and head of the

.

But before that, the same thing happened to another generation of children in the parish of Santo Tomás de Aquino in Barcelona, ​​near the Sagrada Familia, between 1965 and 1970, according to two of them.

EL PAÍS has collected in recent months the testimony of eight people who accuse Vendrell, who died in 2004 at the age of 70, who for three decades went unpunished from one destination to another, despite complaints from the families.

But there are many more victims, who prefer not to speak to the press and have reported it to the Ombudsman, at least 7 more, according to the count of this group of those affected, although they do not know the total number.

In the institution directed by Ángel Gabilondo they only indicate that on the last visit to Barcelona to collect testimonies of this case and others they spoke with 25 people.

Vendrell ended up in Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona, ​​where he retired in 1990. Before becoming a priest, he was the coach of the Montjuic swimming club, between 1954 and 1957. He then went to study in Rome, where he was ordained in 1964.

The priest Josep Vendrell, accused of child abuse in Barcelona, ​​in an image from the late sixties.

As in many other cases, a story of abuse is accompanied by a story of cover-up of the defendant by his superiors.

Vendrell was transferred at least twice, in 1970 from Barcelona to Caldes D'Estrac and, in 1975, from this municipality to Montcada i Reixac.

In both cases he went as a result of scandals over allegations of abuse by some families, according to the account of those affected, but the priest was simply moved to another place.

In those years, the bishops of Barcelona were Marcelo González and, since 1971, Narcis Jubany.

This case is included in the third report of abuses by EL PAÍS, which raised to 500 those uncovered by this newspaper in one year and was delivered in December 2022 to the Episcopal Conference and the Ombudsman.

With the commitment to facilitate contact with the victims if they so wish,

although the vast majority reject it out of mistrust of the Spanish Church.

In total, this newspaper records for the moment, in the absence of official data or from the Church, 910 accused and 1,741 victims of abuse in the ecclesiastical institution.

More information

All known cases of pedophilia in the Spanish Church

However, the archdiocese of Barcelona, ​​led by the president of the Episcopal Conference, Juan José Omella, indicates two months after hearing about the case, through the first testimony known to this newspaper and included in the report, which has not yet been opened no investigation.

Despite the fact that the 2020 Vatican rules to end the cover-up are clear: bishops and religious superiors must open an investigation at any indication.

The

, is “all information about a possible crime that reaches the Ordinary or the Hierarch in any way.

It is not necessary for it to be a formal complaint” (article 9).

It can arrive through the media (article 10), even without precise data it must be studied and if it is credible, a prior investigation should be opened (articles 13 and 16).

Moreover, Article 11 indicates, “sometimes, the

may come from an anonymous source, that is, from unidentified or unidentifiable persons.

The anonymity of the complainant should not automatically lead to the assumption that the news is false.

However, the archbishopric of Barcelona, ​​like many other dioceses, alleges that it cannot open an investigation if the possible victims do not come to denounce the bishopric and has denied the credibility of the reports in EL PAÍS.

In response to this newspaper's request for information, he has responded in these terms to justify that he is not investigating anything: “No rule of law in a democracy allows anonymous denunciation, that is, the denunciation without the complainant being recorded;

Nor does canon law allow it.

Otherwise, we would find ourselves facing a totalitarian political and social system, without freedom, in which citizens live in constant fear of being denounced anonymously and without effective defense, even for false or spurious reasons.

Admitting an anonymous complaint to provoke an ex officio investigation would be reminiscent of past times, such as an inquisitorial system.

And it is essential to protect the fundamental legal principle of the presumption of innocence, without which no one would be safe from unfounded allegations.

(...) It is essential that the claimant make his complaint effective before a Church or State authority.

Canon Law obliges an investigation to be opened when the news of a crime is credible, and for this reason it must have a minimum of legal guarantee, such as the identification of the complainant.

Emails sent to a newspaper have no legal effects, because EL PAÍS cannot become a judicial or police authority, as if it were a police station that receives complaints”.

Explain that when complainants come forward,

Salvador Clofent, another of Josep Vendrell's abuse denouncers.

MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI

The first whistleblower who spoke to EL PAÍS, and appears in the report, believes that the archbishopric "does not realize that denying the evidence harms them even more, one of the reasons for denouncing it to the press is precisely that, that the Church keep refusing to investigate what happened.”

"If one day they do an impartial investigation, we'll talk," he says.

The people who have given their testimony about this case have not yet decided if they will go to the Church, but they say they want me to apologize, to investigate what happened, to clarify the cover-up and to punish those responsible, if that still they are alive

"And above all, that it does not happen again," they emphasize.

EL PAÍS brought together this group of former classmates, who are now around 70 years old and are architects, publishers, businessmen, and some of them were seeing each other for the first time in 50 years.

They were united by the same misfortune: having suffered abuse from Vendrell.

They all remembered the smell of

and cognac on his breath, which still haunts them.

Many have only recently started talking about it and some have not yet told their families.

Leopoldo Lluch, 69, and Lluís Boiria, 68, who frequented the Barcelona parish of Santo Tomás de Aquino, say that they barely escaped, but both assure that their colleagues ―who have testified before the Ombudsman but prefer not talk to the press—suffered serious abuses.

“The parents were delighted”

“We were children who spent the day on the street.

This man arrived at the parish and set up a

group , the Agrupament Escolta Aureli Escarré.

We went on Saturdays and Sundays, we went on excursions, camping on vacation.

The parents were delighted”, recalls Lluch.

He gave him private classes in his office and one day, when he was about 13 years old, he told him to close the book: “He lowered my pants, hugged me, but at that moment someone knocked on the door and told me to hide, and not to pull up my pants.

But I came out, it was someone who knew me, who was stunned.

I got home and told my parents.

But his response was to give me a host.

Only my grandfather took an ice pick to kill him, but they stopped him and then nothing happened."

Boiria, 68, was given a "homosexuality test", although he specified that he only abused him psychologically: "He told me: 'close your eyes and think of a girl and see if she gets hard on you.'

I didn't even know what she was talking about.

Then he started talking to me about sex and it was very violent, I fell into a well, I completely dissociated, I just thought: 'I'm in danger, I'm in danger'.

I broke with God, with my parents, who had not protected me, I broke with the world.

I started to suspend everything.”

The transfer, in 1970, happened as a result of two complaints, according to Lluch's account.

One from a father to the bishopric and a second from another parent to the police, although the beginning of the procedures says everything about how it ended.

According to Lluch, "the commissioner called the priest to make a confrontation, but forced the father to square off in front of the priest, because he was a lieutenant in the Spanish Army."

Indeed, in the Official Gazette of the Ministry of the Army of April 1959, the promotion of Vendrell, from the 1954 replacement, to lieutenant and complement sergeant appears.

All this they have learned later, then the parishioners said goodbye to Vendrell with a party in style.

The priest Josep Vendrell poses with the nuns and students of Caldes D'Estrac next to the bus with which they traveled to Rome in 1970.

The only consequence was the transfer of the priest, who appeared that year in Caldes D'Estrac.

"He arrived already with rumors of pedophilia and problems with children, it was said that he arrived punished by the bishop, although later that did not translate into anything," recalls Lluís Grau.

The rumors referred to his time at the Montjuic swimming club, which has not responded to requests for information from EL PAÍS about whether it is aware of any episode of abuse by Vendrell.

In any case, he even came to Caldes as director of the local school, which had a boarding school.

In addition, he taught Religion and Formation of the National Spirit.

"But he was a progressive priest, we never saw him in a cassock," recalls this former student.

Charismatic and athletic, he soon became very popular and habitual in the houses of the neighbors, where he appeared for lunch and dinner.

He organized the

and, as soon as he arrived, a trip to Rome by bus, with students and nuns.

Later another to Mallorca.

He also started abusing right away.

Grau recounts that it was on the trip to Italy where he suffered them.

“In Rome he punished me by sleeping with him in a separate apartment.

At siesta time, he had to go to his bedroom and ended up in the priest's bed with his pants and underpants down.

He touched everything he wanted and kissed me on the mouth.

He justified himself by saying that he had a problem with masturbation and that it was a shock treatment to fix it.

I did not understand anything, he was 12 years old.

Then, after his return, it never happened again.

In the town, Vendrell dedicated himself to systematically abusing the school children, according to all the accounts.

Raúl Costa, 62, who was an intern, remembers: “He lived in the school building, he had a floor above and we all used to go there.

At that time we would be 30 interns and 100 students.

He would call you, you would go up, he would start kissing you, he would pull down your pants and masturbate you, with me it did not happen from there.

He told me: 'When love is pure, the sex does not matter.'

And not say anything.

I have never told it."

At night, he did the same with the inmates, whom he called to his bedroom, recalls Oriol Boguña.

Salvador Clofent, one more year older, also went up to that floor: “He told me that I looked strange, that I was paying close attention to the children, and then he pulled down my pants, kissed me, tried to masturbate me.

The worst thing was that, the kisses, when you have not kissed anyone yet, and that kiss with a tongue flavored with cognac and

”.

The next time he called her he hid in the bathroom.

"From then on he ridiculed me and made me look bad."

Xavier Torrentó, two years younger, once passed by the house: "With the excuse of hygiene, he made me drop my pants and touched me a little, but nothing more."

Article from the sports newspaper 'Dicen' from 1964, in which it is reported that José Vendrell, coach of the Montjuic swimming club, has been ordained as a priest.

But with other students Vendrell went much further.

“My abuse lasted four or five years, from 12 to 15, when I was older and I already rebelled.

It started when I was an altar boy, and then it was in his apartment.

He ended up naked, he forced me to give him fellatio and once he tried to penetrate me.

What would my ignorance and innocence be like when I told him: but Mosen, what if we have a child?

He told me not to worry.

He tried, but it hurt me a lot, I screamed and he left it, ”recalls another of the students, who does not wish to identify himself.

He's over it, he has a family and he believes that he doesn't have any trauma, but he admits that it's something that he's always there.

“It happened 50 years ago, but he is always there.

It's like a closed box that you ignore, you don't know how much it really affects you.

Those images, those minutes.

Sometimes they appear.

You can't erase it

commotion in town

As in Barcelona, ​​in the summer of 1975 the family of a school student who lived in Arenys de Mar, a nearby town, denounced what had happened and the news spread throughout the town.

Some parents, says Grau, informed Monsignor Pons, the archpriest of the Maresme area.

Grau himself affirms that he went to face the priest to ask him if he had abused more children, besides him, and he admitted that he had.

The next day Vendrell disappeared, took the suitcase and left.

It was a shock in the town, which was divided between those who believed the accusations and those who did not.

“The community broke up, it was a very small town, it was very sad.

And I think that this discomfort still exists, it is a taboo subject there, ”says Clofent.

At that time, many of the boys from the school met in a bar to talk about what had happened, and many revealed that they had been victims of the priest, but the secret remained there.

The complainants have been getting together in recent months, at the initiative of some of them, who, in view of the numerous cases of pedophilia in the Church that have come to light, thought that the time had come to talk about theirs.

They have a list of students, from various courses, with at least 172 people.

“We want to contact everyone.

I don't know how many victims there could have been," explains Grau.

They managed to contact victims in Barcelona, ​​but they still do not know if there are any in Montcada i Reixac, where he spent his last twenty years as a priest, until 1990.

Josep Vendrell, during a celebration in a 'scout' camp in the parish of Santo Tomás de Aquino, in Barcelona, ​​at the end of the sixties.

Until now each one has carried it as they could, and for the first time they share memories.

One of the most shocking is from Oriol Boguña: it happened during a confession.

“He asked me when was the last time he had masturbated me.

I told him I didn't remember and then he sat me on his knee, pulled down my pants and started masturbating me.

I didn't even have a hair yet, and he kept on hurting me, angrily telling me that something had to come out.

At the end he made the sign of the cross in the air and absolved me ”.

In his story there is an epilogue.

Many years later, when he went to his brother's funeral, he found that the priest who officiated was Vendrell.

There he continued, no one ever did anything.

Until today.

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

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