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with all known cases.
If you know of a case that has not seen the light of day, you can write to us at:
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If it is a case in Latin America, the address is:
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The provincial of the Bolivian Jesuits, Bernardo Mercado, has declared as a witness before the Prosecutor's Office of the Andean country in the case of pedophilia of Alfonso Pedrajas, the Spanish Jesuit who admitted in a secret newspaper that he abused dozens of minors and how the order covered it up for four decades.
"We are firmly committed to collaborating with justice and proof of this is that I am here to present the requirements that have been sent to my office," Mercado said before entering to testify before the prosecutor in charge of the process, Patricia Zenteno. .
The case of this priest's diary, known as Pica, has shaken Bolivia for the past week.
After the publication of the story by EL PAÍS, the Bolivian Jesuits have removed eight former high officials, the Bolivian Episcopal Conference has apologized and the Public Ministry has opened an investigation.
The latter, to reveal who, within the religious order, covered up Pedrajas, who died in 2009. This Friday, the Bolivian police reported that they will go to Interpol to find out the whereabouts of the separated Jesuit superiors, with Spanish and Bolivian nationality , and to make sure they have not fled Bolivia.
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Diary of a pedophile priest
The "pedophile priest" as the Bolivian press calls him, confessed that he had sexually assaulted his students and that he had reported these crimes to his superiors and Jesuit colleagues in a personal diary that, after his death, was found by his nephew Fernando Pedrajas in Madrid, where they sent the priest's belongings after his death.
The priest's account was confirmed by the testimonies of five victims.
Despite the fact that Pedrajas' criminal activities were known to Bolivian Catholic leadership, he was never arrested or prosecuted.
The order, in addition to suspending eight provincials -five held office while Pica was alive, and another three held it after his death- also filed a "generic complaint" with the police on Wednesday, based on the EL PAÍS report.
Regarding the initiative of the police to request information from Interpol, the Jesuits' lawyer, Audalia Zurita, has ruled out that this has happened and has assured that everyone will be available to the authorities when they require it.
Most of these priests are already in their eighties.
The alumni association of the Juan XXIII school, which was the main scene of Pica's crimes, revealed that these were known to the Jesuits for a long time and that several students and priests who denounced them ended up being expelled, sanctioned or bribed to avoid that there would be a scandal.
The same happened with Fernando Pedrajas's complaint from 2022, which was not taken into account by those responsible for the order until the report on Pica appeared in EL PAÍS.
The Bolivian press has published the route followed by the complaint and identified some of the priests who dismissed it, despite the instruction of Pope Francis to act proactively in these cases.
The victims of Pedrajas are organizing to demand "comprehensive reparation" for what they suffered at an early age and definitively marked their lives.
It transpired that, however, they fear that the notoriety of the case will end up revictimizing them.
The mayor of the administrative capital of Bolivia, La Paz, Iván Arias, who studied at the Colegio Juan XXIII, declared that Pedrajas is a "Judas" who betrayed the work of this institution, which "saved the lives" of many people, between them, himself.
For his part, the former president of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, tweeted that “the crimes committed by the pedophile priest, protected by his superiors, must be punished.
Victims must receive comprehensive reparation.
The State must guarantee protection to minors in all training centers, regardless of who manages them”.
The boarding school was dedicated to educating the brightest children in public education, who came from poor families.
It passed into the hands of the Society of Jesus in the 1970s and closed in 2008. Pedrajas, who took over as deputy director of the College in 1972, took advantage of the economic vulnerability of these students to make them victims of what he called the "disease" of he.