The diary of the Spanish Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas is a terrifying document that witnesses first-hand the abuses perpetrated by a religious and its cover-up by the Catholic Church.
In his pages, the priest who died in 2009 admits that he sexually assaulted dozens of children as a teacher at various schools in Latin America, especially in Bolivia and specifically in an institution in Cochabamba.
The silence of the Catholic hierarchy in the face of the information revealed by EL PAÍS was no exception in the case of Pedrajas, who in his diary tells how at least seven superiors and a dozen Bolivian and Spanish clergymen hid their crimes and the denunciations of some victims.
Also for this reason it is crucial that the civil and judicial authorities take a step forward to prevent, clarify and prosecute the abuses perpetrated by members of the Church.
The decision announced by the Bolivian attorney general, Wilfredo Chávez, is therefore commendable both for the speed and forcefulness of the initiative.
The body he directs, in charge of supervising the public administration, will initiate an investigation into the abuses of the Spanish Jesuit.
The first thing will be to request Spain, through diplomatic channels,
The leadership of the Society of Jesus in Bolivia was also forced to speak out after the publication of the newspaper and yesterday provisionally suspended eight priests who held the highest position of the congregation in the country.
The order admits the "credibility" of the complaints, although the priest's nephew had already denounced the abuses before various religious and judicial authorities and never received a response: the suspicion that the permissiveness and concealment of the case prevailed over the pain caused is devastating. methodically by a member of the institution.
The priest confesses in his memoirs that he feels ashamed for the crimes he committed, but reduces them to the category of "sins", "blunders" or "disease": self-exculpation is part of the usual protocol in cases of pedophilia as flagrant as present,
by own confession.
When he died of cancer at the age of 62, he received an enormous number of tributes, including from public figures in the Andean country, where he was a teacher, school director, in charge of novices and religious vocations counselor, among other positions.
The investigation is now the last instrument to repair its victims and is an incentive for the proliferation or reactivation, both in Bolivia and in other countries, of similar initiatives.
The Government of Evo Morales announced, for example, in 2016 the opening of a file for allegations of rape of boys and girls perpetrated by religious, but then everything ended in borage water.
It is vital that the will to clarify cases of pedophilia in the Catholic Church does not decline again to determine the responsibilities of both the aggressors and the cover-up authorities.