July 7, 2023, 23:00 PM
July 7, 2023, 23:00 PM
The priest of the Society of Jesus, Francisco Pifarréwent this Friday, July 7, to the Public Ministry of Santa Cruz where provided his informative statement, after the complaint filed against him for the alleged crime of sexual abuse.
Pifarré was director of the Juan XXIII boarding school between 1992 and 1995, and also general director of Fe y Alegría in Bolivia. The religious was mentioned by victims of pedophilia, ex-volunteers of the Society of Jesus and ex-Jesuit Pedro Lima.
The priest’s statement was made extensively and before the prosecutor assigned to the case, Ligia Guzmán, in front of those who defended their innocence. He assured that he had no record of the aforementioned crime and not having been alone with any student of the Colegio Juan XXIII when he was director of that establishment.
He also denied having worked with Alfonso Pedrajas (Pica) in said school and confirmed that, on the contrary, there were internal conflicts when he began the reform of the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba.
Last week, the Society of Jesus reported that Pifarré found out on his own about the existence of complaints against him; “without having been notified or summoned to date.”
And as a result of that, the entity mentioned that the religious volunteered before the Prosecutor’s Office to request that a date and time be set for him to take a statement.
The investigations are being carried out in light of the complaint made by the former Jesuit, Pedro Lima, who in mid-May toaccused 11 priests of the Society of Jesus for pedophilia and concealment of this crime.
El País de España published part of the diary of Alfonso Pedrajas, a Spanish priest -known as Father Pica-, in which the priest admitted that between the 70s and 80s he abused and raped at least 85 children and adolescents in Bolivia. The religious man, the main defendant, is now dead.
