The priest Maurilio Villafana Morales
A new case of pedophilia has rocked the Peruvian Catholic Church. Maurilio Paulino Villafana Morales, 53, pastor in the districts of Mato and Huata in the province of Huaylas in the region of Ancash, was sentenced to life imprisonment for violating sexual freedom. His victim is a girl who was abused for five years between 2014 and 2019. Her ordeal began when she was nine years old and a member of her community choir.
The parents found out much later that the priest they believed in, who gave them the host and read the Word of God every Sunday, had abused their daughter. Dismayed, they went to court. After four years, the judiciary took his side. The evidence was sufficient for the Supraprovincial Collegiate Criminal Court of Huaraz. In addition to the maximum sentence, Maurilio Villafana must pay Morales a fine of just over $1,600 in civil redress.
“I took them by the shoulders, back and chest. He told him he was good. The representative of God that nothing bad would happen to him that was in the church. He started stripping off her clothes and said, “You want me.” She wanted to scream and couldn’t, the priest kissed her and stripped her of her clothes. The following week the same thing happened. The pastor told him: “You came back because you wanted more,” said the statement from the girl’s mother, whose identity was not released. The little girl was about to take her own life. “I saved her twice, she wanted to hang herself. The last one took 60 pills and was in the hospital for more than two months,” she told a TV station.
Villafana Morales has been disqualified from teaching or administrative work in public or private elementary or higher education institutions. The public prosecutor assumes that there would be more victims and more participants. Those involved have been identified as Graciela Guerrero Rosas, Grober Quito Milla and Alina Meres Morel, adults in charge of the children’s choir. Now the competent authorities must arrest the priest and detain him in Víctor Pérez Liendo prison in the city of Huaraz to carry out his sentence. This was established by the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE).
According to the Office of the Ombudsman, there were 8,100 cases of rape of minors in Peru in 2022. Average of 22 cases per day. In 2023, the numbers have increased: between January and February alone, 2,764 cases were reported, 92% of which were directed against girls and adolescents.