EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish church in 2018 and has an updated database of all known cases. If you know of a case that has not yet come to light, you can write to us at: [email protected]. If it concerns a case in Latin America, the address is: [email protected].
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More than 40 years fighting ghosts, memories, trauma and pain. They closed themselves into themselves and thought that they were the only ones who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest or religious figure. This is how Wilder Flores defines the path that pedophilia victims have taken in the Bolivian Church. “We were 12, 13, 14 years old; We woke up in the world of youth and discovered our sexuality. At that age, not only were we victims of compulsive pedophiles and serial rapists, we were also victims of abuse of power and conscience and condemned to silence. We couldn’t go to anyone,” Flores says. Condemned to silence until now. Nine months after the clergy abuse scandal broke in Bolivia, Flores and a group of victims founded the Bolivian Community of Survivors, the first national association of pedophilia victims in the Latin American country. The aim is to offer these people a place of refuge so that they can confidently tell their story and feel welcome. “With this name we will fight for healing, to say: enough is enough. No more silence, no more repetition of these crimes. We strive for justice, our fight is for the safety of our boys and girls,” says Flores, who was appointed president of the association.
The organization currently has 25 active members, but they already count that more than half a thousand people have been abused in Bolivia in recent decades, about 200 of them within the Society of Jesus. Bolivia's abuse scandal erupted in May after EL PAÍS published an investigative report into the secret diary of Spanish priest Alfonso Pedrajas, in which he confessed to abusing 85 minors between the 1960s and the early 2000s. The Jesuit who died in 2009 said he told his superiors several times and they covered it up for him. “We didn’t know that there were many of us, that there were too many of us. “After the pedophile priest’s diary was revealed, we found each other and discovered the hell we were condemned to together,” says Flores. The report caused a media earthquake and several previously unpublished cases came to light. The Bolivian Public Prosecutor's Office opened a comprehensive investigation, which is still ongoing, and the Bolivian Bishops' Conference set up a commission to compile complaints.
The members of the association assure that they know the power of the Church, especially the Jesuits, and are aware that they are trying to boycott all its initiatives in order to make the problem visible. “We know we are dealing with a global organization with great economic power that has been covering up grievances for 500 years. This is not the first scandal for her. They intend to apply their silence protocols,” explains Flores. For this reason, they add, they have created several channels so that more affected people can contact them and join the cause: through the email [email protected], the WhatsApp number +591 74657196 and their Facebook Comunidad Boliviana de Survivors page. “We appeal to those of us who were victims. Uncovering this pain is inevitable and necessary. We must emerge from the darkness to which we were condemned as children. “There are many wounds to heal, it was not our fault, but now it is our responsibility to heal together and to shout to the world that something like this cannot happen again and that those responsible for our Holocaust face justice will be drawn,” announces the president of the club.
The country's economic situation and the lack of official services make it difficult for the association to start concrete projects to educate and help those affected by abuse. Reason why they constantly carry out funding campaigns: “We call on all public and private institutions in Bolivia and abroad to join our goals and help us protect our children, from legal and psychological to spiritual levels.” We can't claiming that they are the future of our society if we do not take care of their present.”
“It’s not revenge, it’s justice!”
The Jesuits of Bolivia, on the other hand, have turned their backs on victims like those who make up this association and have denounced to society the abuses they have suffered in recent decades. In the case of the Jesuit Pedrajas, for example, the institution stopped the canonical investigation and denied them reparation. In response, about twenty victims sued the company last October for the cover-up. to protect pedophile clergy and to silence those affected. The plaintiffs were exclusively former students from various Jesuit schools who had been victims of attacks between 1972 and 1996 and had already independently reported their attackers. The complaint was directed against the order's current provincial superior in Bolivia, Bernardo Mercado, “as the highest authority” of the institution. The complainants accuse the company of being responsible for the crimes of rape of minors “by omission” because it was aware of the sexual assaults that occurred for years and did nothing to stop them.
In response, the company released a statement denying its “responsibility” for the abuses reported by victims and claiming that the complaint was aimed at attacking the institution. The document also states that it has always demonstrated “a policy of absolute transparency” on these issues and that “its institutional duty is fulfilled and guaranteed”. However, the truth is that the Jesuits received at least two complaints against two of their members before EL PAÍS published its report, one of them was Pedrajas, and neither opened an investigation, as required by canon law, nor informed the Bolivian civil authorities have. “We know that many have made individual complaints that have never been successful. They remained in the archives of the superiors of the Society of Jesus. They were never promoted to the public ministry. Enough of solving these problems in secret! We want the truth to come out. It's not revenge, it's justice! The institution that protected child sexual predators owes a historic debt to our society,” Flores said.
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