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 the case is in Latin America, the address is: [email protected].
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The Provincial of the Bolivian Jesuits, Bernardo Mercado, testified before the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Andean country in the case of the pedophilia of the Spanish Jesuit Alfonso Pedrajas, who admitted in a secret newspaper that he had abused dozens of minors and how order covered it up for four decades . “We are fully committed to working with the judiciary and the proof of that is that I am here to present the requests that were sent to my office,” Mercado said before stepping in to testify before the prosecutor in charge of the trial Patricia Zenteno to testify.
The fall of this priest’s diary, known as Pica, has rocked Bolivia for the past week. After EL PAÍS published the story, the Bolivian Jesuits deposed eight former high officials, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference apologized and the public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. The latter to reveal who within the religious order covered up Pedrajas, who died in 2009. This Friday, the Bolivian police said they will go to Interpol to find out the whereabouts of the separated Jesuit superiors with Spanish and Bolivian nationality and to make sure they have not fled Bolivia.
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The “pedophile priest”, as the Bolivian press calls him, confessed that he had sexually abused his students and reported these crimes to his superiors and fellow Jesuits in a personal diary found after his death by his nephew Fernando Pedrajas in Madrid, where they sent the priest’s belongings after his death. The testimony of five victims corroborated the priest’s testimony. Despite the fact that Pedrajas’ criminal activities were known to the Bolivian Catholic leadership, he was never arrested or prosecuted.
The order, in addition to suspending eight provincials — five held office during Pica’s lifetime and three more after his death — filed a “general complaint” with police on Wednesday, based on the EL PAÍS report. Regarding the police initiative to request information from Interpol, the Jesuit lawyer Audalia Zurita has ruled out that this has happened and assured that everyone will be available to the authorities if they need it. Most of these priests are already in their eighties.
The alumni association of the Juan XXIII school, which was the main scene of Pica’s crimes, revealed that these had long been known to the Jesuits and that several students and priests who denounced them were eventually expelled, sanctioned or bribed to do so to avoid there would be a scandal.
The same happened with Fernando Pedrajas’ complaint of 2022, which was not considered by those responsible for the order until the report on Pica appeared in EL PAÍS. The Bolivian press has published the path of the complaint and identified some of the priests who have turned them down, despite Pope Francis’ directive to act proactively in these cases.
The victims of Pedrajas are organizing to demand “full redress” for what they suffered at a young age and left a lasting mark on their lives. However, it turns out they fear the high profile of the case will cause them to become victims again.
The mayor of the administrative capital of Bolivia, La Paz, Iván Arias, who studied at the Colegio Juan XXIII, stated that Pedrajas is a “Judas” who betrayed the work of this institution, which “saved the lives of many people”, she herself. The For his part, former President of Bolivia Carlos Mesa tweeted that “the crimes committed by the pedophile priest, protected by his superiors, must be punished. The victims must be fully compensated. The state must ensure the protection of minors in all educational establishments, regardless of who administers them.”
The boarding school was dedicated to educating the brightest children in the public education system, who came from poor families. It passed into the hands of the Society of Jesus in the 1970s and closed in 2008. Pedrajas, who became associate director of the college in 1972, exploited the economic vulnerability of these students to make them victims of what he called his “disease”.