Antonio Muñoz, priest accused of abuse in Malaga, in a picture from the 80s.
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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A sixth hidden case of a priest accused of pedophilia in Malaga joins the five published in this newspaper this week, following the controversy surrounding the arrest of two priests. He is the cleric accused by a former student of the city’s European School, a private center where he was their religion teacher in the mid-1980s. BM’s statement was sent to the diocese of Málaga in June as part of the fourth report on abuses by EL PAÍS, and she herself later went to the diocese to make a statement, although the diocese did not give her any information about the priest’s identity or whereabouts. This woman did not remember his name, she doubted whether it was Antonio, and she told how he disappeared from school overnight because a scandal broke out: he appeared in the magazine Interviú and was accused of pedophilia. EL PAÍS found an article in this magazine from 1986 about a priest from Malaga who was arrested that day, but this woman was not sure whether it was his. He was right: there was a second priest from that diocese who then appeared on Interviú. It was 1987 and it was Antonio Muñoz Rivero in a shocking report entitled “The Priest’s Large Family”: He had five children and his three daughters accused him of abusing them. Three former students of the European School have identified him as their religion teacher.
What now comes to light through the statements of BM and another classmate, EPS, is that she also committed abuse at this center. The director of the school, who was a high school student there at the time, assured that he could not remember any scandal involving a teacher that appeared on Interviú and did not want to give any further explanations.
When BM finally finds out the priest’s identity, he is outraged. Especially because she didn’t want to clarify anything during her visit to the diocese in July, neither his name nor what became of him, and she is convinced that they knew who he was. “They just wanted to know how much I knew and then they never contacted me again. No apology, no explanation, nothing. “The diocese is very irresponsible.” She also regrets the school’s attitude: “They never asked us girls, they didn’t think about whether we had also suffered abuse.” Knowing that we had it in there . “They simply forbade us to talk about it.”
Other relevant data emerges that the diocese led by Bishop Jesús Catalá does not want to clarify: After Muñoz was discovered and accused of pedophilia – it is also not clarified whether legal measures were taken and with what result – Muñoz was arrested by Bishop Ramón sent to Venezuela Buxarrais. He remained there as a missionary until 2002. The other priest, Rafael Medina, who appeared in the magazine and was imprisoned for abuse, was also offered to go to America at the same time, as the priest himself said years later, who rejected him and left his ways. . Buxarrais, Bishop of Malaga from 1973 to 1991, is also suspected of a cover-up in two other cases uncovered by this newspaper. He is still alive and it is not known whether the diocese has asked him for explanations as part of the investigations it is obliged to carry out on behalf of the Pope.
Bishop Emeritus of Malaga, Ramón Buxarrais, at an honoring ceremony in 2005.FG Guerrero (EFE)
Muñoz returned to Malaga in 2002 and died last month at the age of 97. In the Interviú article, the woman who accused him of not recognizing the paternity of her children claimed that the diocese knew about her situation and gave her a pension for seven years because the priest had seasonally abandoned her to her fate. First 3,000 pesetas and then up to 8,000. The priest’s biography reached a surprising climax: in 2001, he was appointed chaplain to His Holiness together with John Paul II. It is an honorary position offered by the Vatican to senior priests in recognition of their work and is usually carried out at the suggestion of the diocese. It was during the time of Bishop Antonio Dorado. As in the other cases, the Episcopate of Málaga refuses to provide explanations or information. “The Protocol of the Catholic Church was implemented by the Diocese of Malaga,” is the only answer.
The story the magazine told is amazing. The woman reporting on the events, named Pepita La del Cura, said she met the priest in her town of Campanillas, where he was stationed. He had been ordained in 1951 and his first destination was Álora, where he was in charge of Carratraca. He was also treasurer of Cuevas Bajas and parish priest of the Holy Martyrs of Málaga, Ubrique, El Bosque and Benamahoma. According to Pepita, he fell in love with her and told her that he would leave the church and marry her. She remembered that they went to the Puerta Oscura area in Malaga, where couples went, and because she was embarrassed that he was dressed as a priest, he first changed his clothes in an open field. She stated that around 1956 the priest was 30 years old and she was 19. That means she was a minor under the laws of the time. In fact, he claimed in the text, he forged his baptism certificate to allow him three more years and provided him with a false ID. When she became pregnant, she explained, she put on a plate.
In 1958, Pepita continued, they kicked the priest out of town. “The rich got together and reported to the diocese that the priest had beaten a boy for not paying at the cinema he ran and that he had also flirted with all the girls he could. “They sent him to Antequera as a chaplain.” Children continued to be born and in the end, this woman said, the priest bought a piece of land and built a house for them. Since it was an open secret, he said that Bishop Emilio Benavent had promised him “help and punishment for the guilty.” And although at first she denied everything, when the priest left her, she turned to the bishop: “He told me that they already knew everything and that, although I had refused the initial help, they would give me 3,000 pesetas a month for maintenance would pay.” my children. That same afternoon, Sister Agustina appeared at my house with the 3,000 pesetas, and she came every month for seven years.” He added that sometimes, if the priest happened to be at home, he would go under the bed while the nun was there was so that she didn’t see him and the pocket money wasn’t deducted. During this time, Muñoz was chaplain of the hospital and cemetery of Antequera, as well as chaplain of the Dominicans in the same city. Also in charge of La Joya, treasurer of Benamocarra, in charge of Iznate and parish priest of San Sebastián, according to the diocese.
The current Bishop of Málaga, Jesús Catalá, at an information meeting in May 2022. European Press (DIOCESE OF MÁLAGA)
This situation and the family pension, according to this woman, were maintained in the 1960s with three successive bishops: Emilio Benavent, Ángel Suquía and Ramón Buxarrais. During these years the priest abused his three daughters, as they themselves accused in the magazine. Finally, in 1968, the priest was sent to Venezuela for the first time and was posted first to Ospino in the state of Portuguesa and then to El Sombrero in Guárico. He was there for 16 years.
He returned in 1984 and, according to the biography published by the diocese, was parish priest of Benagalbón, in charge of Moclinejo and chaplain of another school in Málaga, Virgen Milagrosa. He was later assigned to the parish of San Álvaro, located in the Puertosol urbanization next to the European School, where he also began to teach, and now the allegations have emerged. It was then that the priest’s family learned that he had returned, condemned him for not recognizing the paternity of his children, and told his story to Interviú in April 1987. Later, after disappearing from school and the parish, Muñoz was transferred to Virgen del Carmen and Santa Fe de Los Boliches in Fuengirola. Finally, the diocese sent him back to Venezuela in 1988. He spent 14 years there until he retired and returned to Spain.
When asked by this newspaper, the diocese of Malaga did not answer why the victim’s request to know the priest’s identity and his behavior towards him was not honored. It is also not explained whether a canonical case was opened against him in 1987, why he was sent to Venezuela and whether he had contact with minors there and whether there are also complaints. Nor why Muñoz was appointed chaplain to His Holiness in the first place. The whitewashing of this priest’s figure led to him being interviewed on the diocese’s website in 2019 as a model priest.
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