Calay News
The Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu, recognized for his extensive experience in investigating cases of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in Latin America, has been sent by Pope Francis to address the sexual abuse scandals affecting the Society of Jesus in Bolivia.
Monsignor Bertomeu, an official of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and close collaborator of the Supreme Pontiff, arrived in the Andean country in order to investigate the cases of sexual abuse and analyze the circumstances surrounding such incidents. The growing number of known cases and the controversy generated in the political arena have motivated the pope’s intervention.
The Bolivian Episcopal Conference (CEB) has communicated that Bertomeu’s visit to La Paz has the objective of analyzing and reflecting on the advances in the promotion of a culture of prevention promoted by Pope Francis. The CEB assures that the meetings will be held in an atmosphere of closeness and understanding towards the victims of abuse in the church.
It is important to note that the management of the visit of the Spanish priest began three years ago, following the participation of some members of the National Prevention Commission in online courses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the ecclesiastical institution.
The sex abuse scandal in Bolivia began last month when the newspaper El Pais published the personal diary of Alfonso Pedrajas, a Spanish priest who died in 2009, who confessed in the newspaper to abuse committed during the 1980s and 1990s against at least 85 children attending Jesuit schools in Bolivia. Since then, the denunciations have increased, and so far, 13 Jesuits have been implicated in more than 200 cases of abuse or cover-up, including some of them already deceased.
This is not the first time that the Vatican has sent a Spanish priest to investigate cases of sexual abuse in Latin America. In 2018, he was sent to Chile to investigate cases of abuse perpetrated by the clergy in the diocese of Osorno, where Bishop Juan Barros covered up for the religious Fernando Karadima, who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse of minors. Monsignor Bertomeu has acquired a reputation as a “007 agent” of the Vatican due to his prominent role in the investigation of these sensitive cases.
