The priest who abused nuns and later confessed them, without house arrest

05/21/2020 - 17:00

• Clarín.com
• Police

The priest Manuel Fernando Pascual (65), imprisoned for the sexual abuse of two nuns from the "Sisters of San José" congregation, was one of the many who used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to request his release. But Justice denied it and Pascual will continue waiting for the oral trial behind bars.

The ruling was resolved by the Oral Criminal Court No. 3 of the Federal Capital before the request for house arrest made by the lawyer Adrián Daniel Albor, who represents the presbyter accused of abuse.

The argument was that the detainee is part of the " risk group " for being over 60 years old and presenting health problems (high blood pressure and prostate disorders).

Pascual is detained in the Ezeiza prison on trial for “ gravely outrageous sexual abuse ” of one of the nuns, continuously between 2012 and 2016, and of another, between 2014 and 2016. The two women were part of the “Sisters of San José ”, located at Ernesto Bavio at 2800, in the Núñez neighborhood.

The priest Manuel Fernando Pascual (65), imprisoned for raping two nuns from the "Sisters of San José" congregation.

According to the charge against Pascual, the attacks began in 2012 at the institution's headquarters and spread during voluntary retreats organized by the priest in a field in the Buenos Aires town of Capitán Sarmiento, where the care was carried out by the nuns.

According to the complaint of the victims, the priest used as a strategy the treatment of personal and sensitive issues, then instilled in them an "absolution" of pain and before abusing them, he proposed "enjoy". Then he confessed them.

Pascual was fully in control of the congregation's situation as he was the spiritual leader and, at the same time, he maintained strict control over each of the sisters. They were forbidden to talk to each other, some of them subjected to a diet and restricted access to medicine.

The victims of the priest first made the complaint to the Catholic Church but were ignored , as they reported. Later they resorted to Justice, which investigated the case and decided to prosecute and imprison Pascual.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Pascual had already made a first attempt to obtain the benefit of the domiciliary. That time, at the end of last year, the priest offered as an endorsement to the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Mario Poli, to fulfill his detention at the Monsignor Mariano Antonio Espinosa Priestly Home, located in Condarco at 500. That request was also rejected by the Crime Chamber.

The priest Manuel Fernando Pascual (65), imprisoned for raping two nuns from the "Sisters of San José" congregation.

Now the priest put the archbishop as guarantor again and, like the previous time, he did not serve either.

"Beyond the deep respect that I have for the Episcopal dignity of the presenter, in his capacity as Cardinal Primate of Argentina, I consider that the proposed variant also fails to throw away the procedural risks as a seed of the anticipated confinement and was already explained, only in this interlocutory, but in any similar treatment to which his situation was submitted, "said the president of the court, Julio Báez.

In order to decide on Pascual's domicile, the court consulted the victims who, through their lawyer Santiago Bertinat Gonnet, disagreed in granting the priest the benefit.

The judges also requested a report from the Forensic Medical Corps, which found that the priest has high blood pressure and prostate disorders (benign prostatic hyperplasia / hypertrophy) and noted that in prison he receives "adequate treatment and medication for his pathologies."

At the same time, the experts indicated that the priest "would not be part of a risk group facing the pandemic due to COVID-19 in attention to the conditions it presents, but due to the age of over 60 years."

Faced with the defense of the priest, the judge asked that "the special care provided for in the protocols issued by the Federal Penitentiary Service be maintained and eventually intensified, among others" the priority of treatment "and the distancing measures established in the Chapters 4 and 7 of the Covid 19 Action Guide ”.

He also ordered that "the inmate be provided with all the medical attention that his state of health requires, and that he should immediately be supplied with the medications indicated by the doctors to the extent and with the frequency that medical science indicates."

Although there are two cases prosecuted, it is believed that the victims could be more. The possible sentence for this crime is up to 40 years.

EMJ