The Vatican has despatched to Bolivia the diary of the late Alfonso Pedrajas, a Jesuit priest who allegedly confessed to abusing dozens of minors in Bolivia relationship again to the Seventies, the newest growth in a pedophilia scandal that has shaken the Andean nation.
In an announcement launched Thursday, the Society of Jesus of Bolivia mentioned the diary was despatched to them by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith – which handles clergy sexual abuse circumstances – after which turned over to the prosecutor’s workplace within the metropolis of Cochabamba, the place the alleged abuse happened.
The Society of Jesus, because the Jesuits are recognized, mentioned it would request a duplicate of the diary written by Pedrajas, who died in 2009, to be able to know its full contents, since only some excerpts have been launched in April by Spanish newspaper El País, which first reported on it. In the diary, Pedrajas allegedly confesses to having abused 85 minors, principally in boarding colleges in Cochabamba between the Seventies and Nineties.
The diary arrived in Bolivia lower than one week after Pope Francis despatched a letter to President Luis Arce, expressing concern and saying he was “dismayed” by the allegations of sexual abuse dedicated by monks and pledging the Church’s cooperation within the investigation carried out by the Bolivian justice system.
Just a few days after the Pedrajas case got here to gentle gentle, Francis despatched one in all his high intercourse crimes investigators to Bolivia. Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu had beforehand led the investigations into abuses dedicated by monks in Chile and Paraguay.
Bertomeu was in Bolivia for 2 days and didn’t make statements to the press. The Bolivian Church clarified that the go to was not linked to the pedophilia scandal however had been deliberate upfront.
New circumstances of sexual abuse have been uncovered on account of this probe and one priest was despatched to pre-trial detention for 3 months final month.
So far, there are a minimum of 12 judicial investigations towards clergy members in Bolivia, together with one which already resulted in a 10-year jail sentence for a priest charged with rape, the Bolivian Episcopal Conference mentioned.
In a number of of the circumstances, those that have been accused of abuse have already died.
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