Enric Puiggrosdelegate of the Society of Jesus in Catalonia and soon its maximum representative in Spain, has appeared before the press after three weeks during which the cases of sexual abuse suffered by minors enrolled in the school of Casp of Barcelona. Puiggrós has condemned the events, has apologized and regretted that these attacks took place in spaces where minors should have felt safe.
During the first part of the press conference, Puiggrós outlined the decisions that the religious organization has agreed to carry out, which include measures such as hiring the services of the Roca Junyent law firm to manage how to proceed “case by case”, and then he has answered about twenty questions from journalists. During this second part, Puiggrós explained that there are currently only two internal processes open for pedophilia against Jesuits in Catalonia: they are those that correspond to priests Francesc Perís and Francesc Rome, the latter caused by information from EL PERIÓDICO. Puiggrós, who explained that the two reside in a Jesuit center, did not want to clarify whether the two defendants admit the accusations or, on the contrary, reject them.
Despite the fact that he has been required in this regard on more than one occasion, Puiggrós has hidden behind the fact that both internal processes opened against Peris and Roma – a two-person team made up of a member of the community and an external lawyer who interrogate those affected and study the circumstances of the reported abuses – have not yet finished. Rome was recently the subject of a previous internal process that has already been completed, but Puiggrós has not wanted to reveal what the priest said in relation to this first case. “He Now he has reopened”, he has argued.
restrictions
Roma, who is over 80 years old, has officiated a mass every Sunday until two weeks ago in the Sagrat Cor church, which is part of the same compound where the school where he allegedly committed the abuses was located. An activity that has ceased as a result of the information in this newspaper. A week before this publication, Rome was going to present a book accompanied by prominent personalities from Barcelona, an event that was canceled after El País uncovered the abuses by Peris and a brother of Rome himself in Bolivia, a country twinned with the Catalan Jesuits and who is now investigating the sexual abuse committed by them for decades.
Puiggrós has assured that it was he who decided to cancel the presentation ceremony of Rome whose call he had overlooked in an oversight. The act, according to the Catalan delegate, was not held not because of the publication of new cases but because it did not comply with the restrictions that weighed on Rome.
Both Roma and Peris are two priests of great “personal ancestry” in the Jesuit community, according to Puiggrós, which is “very affected”. “It is very painful that your colleagues have actions that contaminate your way of life,” she has assured.
“We have not sent pedophiles to Bolivia”
Puiggrós has affirmed that it was “a mistake” to send Lluïs Tó to Bolivia. The priest Tó was convicted of sexual abuse of an 8-year-old student at the Sant Ignasi school in Barcelona and, after the sentence, he was fired with a tribute and sent to the Andean country. It was then said that he was going to do therapy and that he would not be in contact with minors. It was not true. As Pedro Lima, a former Bolivian Jesuit, told this newspaper: Tó did not go to therapy, he continued in contact with minors and continued abusing them.
Peris, for his part, abused students from the Casp center in the 1970s and in 1983 he was sent to Bolivia, where he also abused Bolivian minors. Puiggrós has distinguished between the two cases. There were no records of abuses about Peris when he was sent on a mission to Bolivia, he has assured. He also stressed that the majority of missionaries left for that country or others, such as India, after finishing their formation. “It’s not that we send pedophiles to Bolivia as some headline has made, we don’t.”
Prevention
Puiggrós explained that the relationship with Roca Junyent’s lawyers will not imply that the company appears as a private prosecution in any case that may be opened against Jesuit members for pedophilia. “It would be an act facing the gallery”, he has said about a decision they make after receiving legal advice. During the appearance, the delegate reiterated his willingness to be on the side of those affected and assured that he understands that many prefer to go to the media instead of going to the institution where they suffered the abuse.
For this last reason, the Jesuits have made an external association (AMEE) available to alumni so that they can contact this entity that will mediate between them and the institution.
Regarding the past, it is impossible to carry out an audit because there is no information about what happened, he lamented, before adding that the institution is willing to facilitate “paths of healing and reparation” for the victims. As for the present, he stressed, the Jesuit centers take all the precautions and are training all the teachers to prevent it from happening again.
Seven police complaints
Related news
Roma and Peris are not the only teachers under suspicion at Casp’s school. Also in February 2016, coinciding with the outbreak of abuses in Marist schools that this newspaper uncovered, two former students from the Jesuits’ Kostka school – when this center for families without resources was still integrated into Casp’s – contacted RAC1 to uncover, respectively, the abuses of Joan Pere GM and Josep Maria GP, two lay teachers. Both former students, in addition to calling the station, filed a complaint with the Mossos.
According to the account of EL PERIÓDICO, in addition to these two complaints against the laymen of Kostka – the old Casp school where the poorest students studied – two complaints have been filed against Francesc Roma and three complaints against Francesc Peris.