May 20, 2023, 10:32 AM
May 20, 2023, 10:32 AM
At the Santa Cruz Departmental Prosecutor’s Office, the Society of Jesus presented on Friday, May 19, the first formal complaint against the Spanish priest Alfonso ‘Pica’ Pedrajas, already deceased, for sexual abuse.
The victim, after having denounced the humiliation he suffered by the priest ‘Pica’, was finally encouraged to reveal what happened last week, through the channel of Listening and Attention to the victims, led by the ppsychologist Sandra Carvajal.
The identity of the complainant, who appeared before the Santa Cruz Departmental Prosecutor’s Office, remains confidential, while the Society of Jesus, when initially responding to the complainta, provided not only legal advice, but also psychological.
The complaint was filed at the Los Lotes Prosecutor’s Office in the capital of Santa Cruz, where the victim gave details of the abuse he suffered when he studied at the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba.
Through a press release, the Jesuitas Bolivia company indicates that they have been receiving several calls for this type of abuse since last week; however, it indicates that this is the first formal complaint that they have filed with the corresponding authorities for investigations to begin.
Points out that the decision of the Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Bolivia is to refer to the ordinary justice all complaints of pedophilia related to religious, without the need for a prior internal canonical investigation.
“We want to accompany our apologies and our shame with concrete actions to accompany the victims and seek justice. For this reason, We are receiving complaints and referring them to the Public Ministry, with due advice to complainants. This complaint that was born with the support of our Listening and Attention channel is a clear example of this desire for transparency and collaboration with the authorities,” said Bernardo Mercado SJ, provincial of the Society of Jesus in Bolivia.
They add that in previous years, the delegation of Safe and Healthy Environments of the Society of Jesus received and internally investigated two other complaints against Alfonso Pedrajasaccording to the procedures established by Canon Law, but said content of the investigations, they assure that they were already delivered to the Public Ministry after the publication of the Pedrajas newspaper.
The company makes available the telephone line 78830458 so that victims can report all kinds of abuses to which they have been subjected by Jesuits; they also enable mail: [email protected]
