Justice processes five cases of abuse of minors in the Church in Murcia


LA OPINÓN, a newspaper belonging to the same editorial group as this medium, has been able to access this information after it became known that this Monday the PSOE Registration a non-legislative proposition in Congress to create an independent commissionled by the Ombudsman, to clarify this type of abuse.

The criminal proceedings opened in the Region are six complaints collected in the courts of Murcia, San Javier and Cartagena; three of which accuse the same priest who was stationed in San Pedro del Pinatar. Another case occurred in Cartagena and another, in Murcia. A final procedure took place in Argentina, but its perpetrator resided in the Region at the time of the complaint, so the National audience assumed its powers.

According to the superior prosecutor of the Region, Jose Luis Diaz Manzanerathese complaints have reached the Public Ministry thanks to the collaboration of the Diocese of Cartagena. "I spoke with the bishop in 2019 and he expressed his predisposition. Since then, the judicial vicar established a fluid relationship with the Prosecutor's Office and they have been communicating all these situations to us," he explains.

It was in the same year when Jose Manuel Lorca Plans brought to the attention of the Regional Prosecutor's Office the complaint of alleged sexual abuse of a minor committed by the priest ALZ, already a former parish priest of San Juan Bautista de Yecla and former chaplain of the Virgen del Castillo Hospital. It was the first complaint of which the Diocese was aware, but two more would come, and all of them referred to his time as a priest in San Pedro del Pinatar.

Until now, There are two complaints about this priest for sexual abuse and one for sexual assault. In the first, the victims stated that they had been touched by this priest. In these cases, the Prosecutor's Office asks for five years in prison in one of the cases and two sentences of four and six years in the other (since, presumably, he abused two minors who had some kind of relationship between them). As for sexual assault, which includes an attempted penetration of the minor, the Prosecutor's Office asks for 12 years in prison.

To PSP, monitor of the Minor Seminary of San José, in Santomerathey ask for ten years in prison and compensation of 5,000 euros the victim for having abused a child under ten years of age. When the complaint reached the Bishopric, also in 2019, this individual was already working as a lay professor of religion.

The case of Cartagena was known last April. SJRS, then priest of the church of Saint Anthony Abbotin the demarcation popularly known as San Antón, was also accused of sexual abuse committed against a minor.

An aggravating circumstance in the penalties for the relationship of superiority

It is article 183 of the current Penal Code that refers to sexual abuse of minors. In general, sexual abuse of minors 16 years It is punishable by imprisonment from 2 to 6 years, even if there is consent.

This article also regulates some aggravating factors for the punishment of this crime when certain circumstances occur. The penalties will be increased, says the rule, if the victims are "in a situation of special vulnerability due to age, illness, disability or any other circumstance". Also if the abuser has taken advantage of "a relationship of superiority", which would be applicable not only to an assault committed by a father towards a son, but also to that perpetrated by a priest to abuse, for example, an altar boy.

According to Díaz Manzanera himself, these cases occurred "seven, eight and even nine years ago" and there are already indictments for all of them, except one.

Waiting for the defendants to sit on the bench (there is already a date for the oral hearing for two of them: for next April and for the summer of 2023) and a judge decides whether they should be criminally sentenced, from the Diocese of Cartagena They already announced in 2019 that they will always act before these "execrable crimes" in accordance with the provisions of article 13.4 of the Law on the Legal Protection of Minors and "in accordance with the policy of cooperation with the state jurisdiction required by Pope Francis and that is reflected in article 19 of its latest Motu Proprio You are lux mundi".

In this sense, in the face of complaints such as these, the Bishopric prohibits these priests from exercising religious activity on a precautionary basis (while the open procedure continues) and the defendants are obliged to establish their residence in the Region to remain available to Justice. In addition, in the most serious cases, a procedure is initiated with the Vatican to adopt more severe measures, which can even go as far as the expulsion of the religious.

This information has already been transferred by Díaz Manzanera to the State Attorney General's Officeafter this institution has requested from the regional prosecutors the number of criminal proceedings in process that have as their object complaints and complaints for commission of aggression and sexual abuse of minors within congregations, schools or other religious institutions.



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