"We went to denounce the abuses and the director threw us out of the office" | Society

The Jesuits of the Immaculate School of Gijón in 2001 separated one of their religious professors, Cándido Alonso, after receiving complaints from families of students for their behavior with minors and because, they admit now, already in the nineties there had been another similar protest from a family. Specifically, he explained the order, took pictures of the girls in the yard. Spokespersons of the Society of Jesus have acknowledged that for a decade no measures were taken against this religious. After finding this information "in the archives", they have confirmed the data to EL PAÍS, which has found a woman who accuses of abuse this Jesuit, who died in 2013. This is the fourth case of alleged abuse in this school, the protagonist of a new scandal ten days ago after several news appeared in the local press.

This person, who does not want to reveal his identity, accuses Alonso, who was his professor of natural sciences in the early nineties, of touching when he was in the last years of EGB. "He was known throughout the school, and the compañeras of the previous year warned us that he had a very long hand. We always went with the folders on his chest in front of him. He once took me to a corridor, where I could not escape and touched my breasts. I was frozen. He came to call me at my house to propose to see us alone and once tried to take me to his room, "he says. He adds that, in fact, it was usual for Alonso to walk with a camera through the school.

The Company admits accusations against 7 teachers in Catalonia

The Jesuits of Catalonia, the first order in Spain to open an internal investigation following the information from EL PAÍS, published on Friday a first balance of his inquiries, after three months. He has received emails from 19 people who denounce abuses when they were students from their schools, 11 men and 8 women. They accuse seven Jesuits of four centers, half of those that the order has in Catalonia. But this week has been added a new accusation against another, for abuses in 1965, revealed by the RAC1 station. It is the fourth case reported in the school of Sant Ignasi in Barcelona, ​​where several accusations have arisen this month in the Catalan press.

According to the Jesuits, the person most cited in the reports is Lluís Tó, now deceased. In 1992 he was sentenced to two years in prison and six years of disbarment for sexual abuse of a minor, and was then sent to Bolivia. Other victims have pointed to the religious Pere Sala, denounced in the Mossos d'Esquadra, and Antoni Roigé.

In the nineties were the first protests ignored against the religious who admits the school, and this woman also accuses the director of the center at that time of covering up the case: "I counted everything in my house, and went with a relative to talk to the director , to denounce the abuses, but he threw us out of the office. I've been silent for 25 years, looking for someone else who has happened and I've only been encouraged now to see it come to light. "

The Society of Jesus recognizes who did not open a canonical process to Alonso and has shown his regret for this case: "Today, before the slightest accusation with the appearance of truthfulness, the measures would have been much more decisive from the first moment to prevent any possibility of improper conduct or abuse. We reiterate our desire to make light, our sorrow and shame for those colleagues who abused the trust of families and children, our request for forgiveness, and our desire to help the possible victims of any type of abuse. "

Cándido Alonso was a professor in Gijón from 1965 to 1968 and was a prefect of discipline. From 1968 to 1973 he was in the school of the order in Vigo. He continued in Oviedo from 1973 to 1979, as deputy director of EGB and professor. In 1979 he returned to Gijón, where he remained until he was removed from the center in 2001.

The first of the cases known this month in the Jesuits of Gijón was uncovered last March 12, after a complaint by an ex-student, who is now 25 years old. The presented in January and is investigated by the court of instruction number 2 of Gijón. The accusation of abuses, when the girl was younger, is against the current superior of the Jesuits in La Rioja, Jorge Enríquez Muñoz, who was a professor of philosophy and religion between 2005 and 2008 in the Asturian center. At this time he was in the Sacred Heart school of the order in Logroño, and it was the address of this center that made the news public. The order moved him to another city "while clarifying what happened" and imposed precautionary measures. Enríquez, 48, was ordained in 2004 and Gijón was his first destination. Then he was sent to Mexico, returned to La Coruña, where he remained for five years, and finally ended up in Logroño. In 2018 he was appointed head of the Jesuits in La Rioja. In this same school in Logroño is where Another Jesuit accused of abuses was sent to Salamanca, José María Nieto, from 1984 to 1997, as revealed by EL PAÍS.

The Asturian press then echoed two other cases in the Jesuits of Gijón. A former student wrote to the email that opened the order "to get inappropriate behavior of a member" and reported abuse of another religious in the eighties. The school also removed a teacher from the teaching, in this case secular, in 2010, according to The New Spain. It was after the complaint of a student in the center, who accused him of abuse at the teacher's house, during private classes offered to schoolchildren. The minor's family did not file a complaint through the courts and the teacher was expelled.

If you know of any case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light, write us with your complaint to [email protected]