Abuse case may result in Pope before European Court of Human Rights

The defense of the former professor of Gaztelueta could take the Pope before the Strasbourg Court

Two days after the premiere of the controversial documentary that Disney will broadcast with Pope Francis, the former professor of Gaztelueta, José María Martínez, tells his story in a blog.

José María Martínez, 'Chema', reaffirms his plea of innocence and recounts the ordeal experienced during all these years where he has been sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court and has come to suffer from cancer due to all this situation. But let's go in parts.

This entire campaign began when El Correo, half Basque, began its particular battle against the Gaztelueta school. It should be noted that behind this medium is the Basque oligarchy close to Patxi López and Isabel Celáa, who advocate the end of differentiated education. From the beginning of this case, interestingly mediated, the information was leaked to El Correo.

The 'characters' featured in the trial

Judge Alfonso González Guija was the one who sentenced Chema to 11 years in prison when at that time the Prosecutor's Office requested three years and the family ten. González Guija during this time has had to face several lawsuits against some of his ex-wives and has been convicted of drunk driving.

In the trial against the former Gaztelueta professor and Opus Dei numerary, the role played by psychiatrist Iñaki Viar in getting José María Martínez sentenced to eleven years in prison was also decisive. Iñaki Viar was in charge of analyzing and studying Juan Cuatrecasas and reaffirmed the version offered by the young man. Despite Iñaki Viar's favorable report, it was shown that Cuatrecasas suffered episodes of hallucinations. Iñaki Viar was sentenced to 20 years in prison for belonging to the terrorist group ETA and collaborating in the planting of a bomb without victims, but he was released from prison thanks to the 1977 amnesty law.

In this process, it is also relevant to highlight the role of Leticia de la Hoz, lawyer for the Cuatrecasas family. It was she herself who, in an interview in La Nueva España on 6 October  2015, was the one who had the idea of using the Pope for her interests in the case: “It seemed to us that a letter to the Pope could be a good means of denouncing ”.

Sources close to Chema's defense explain to InfoVaticana that the recorded tapes where Juan Cuatrecasas's statement is heard shows how he stammers and was not able to clearly answer what the Prosecutor was asking him. It was his lawyer who was completing Juan's own sentences.

The Education Inspector of the Ministry of Education of the Basque Country said that nothing that Juan claimed could have happened in that office at the Gaztelueta school.

The passage of Cuatrecasas through Gaztelueta and the beginning of Calvary

The young Cuatrecasas came to Gaztelueta because his parents wanted him to go to the best school in the area. The reality is that Juan did not have brilliant grades as his father claimed and he got regular grades. In addition, he negatively affected his continuous absences from class for medical reasons since he had been taking anxiolytics since he was ten years old.

The relationship between teacher and student was cordial from the beginning. Given the difficulties that Juan had at school, Chema paid him more attention to help him get ahead with his studies. Chema's relationship with the Cuatrecasas family was fluid to the point that when Juan was operated on for appendicitis he went to see him along with other of his colleagues. The professor even went so far as to eat a couple of times at the Cuatrecasas' house.

Not getting the academic results he wanted, his father decided to change him to another school. It was here when the storm breaks loose. Some students from the Gaztelueta school dedicated themselves to cyberbullying Juan when he changed schools.

The family denounced eight students from the Gaztelueta school. Finally, the juvenile prosecutor's office sentenced only two of them to write an essay on harassment. The parents of the minors who had harassed Juan wanted to meet with the Cuatrecasas family to apologize to which Juan's family did not agree.

Not being satisfied with this conviction of the two minors for bullying his son, the father went to the school in 2011 to point out a new target: José María Martínez, who was his tutor at school during the 2007/2008 academic year. . The Cuatrecasas family pointed to the professor as an abuser. An investigation was carried out by the school and the council and it was concluded that nothing had happened.

Already in 2015, it is when El Correo filters a cascade of false accusations against José María Martínez and the complaint arrives.

Start of Church investigation

At the canonical level, he went to the school to investigate what happened to the priest Silverio Nieto. Nieto was presented by Religión Digital – the website that has acted as a spokesperson for the family – as the great scourge against ecclesiastical pedophilia in Spain. He was a relentless person and had remarkable experience in these situations. That digital newspaper wrote on October 14, 2015: “Silverio Nieto subjected them to exhaustive interrogation about the case. Both the father and the boy. A two and a half hour interrogation. Thoroughly and mercilessly. Silverio asked questions and Rafael Felipe [el notario] took notes on his computer”.

After Silverio Nieto's verdict agreeing with the professor and asking that José María's good name be restored, the family flew into a rage against him and became one more accessory after the fact, calling the process informal and inconsistent.

Reopening of the investigation by order of the Pope

The reopening of this case is the result of the recording of the controversial documentary of Pope Francis with Disney, by Jordi Évole's production company in the summer of 2022. In September is when the reopening of the 'Gaztelueta case' arrives in order to “refine responsibilities and heal wounds." This canonical reopening of the case was first published by related media before the professor's defense was even aware of it.

Before the reopening of the investigation into this case against José María Martínez, Pope Francis wrote a letter to Juan Cuatrecasas telling him not to worry about anything. The Pope made it clear in the reopening of the process that Juan was not going to appear and was not going to be subjected to any analysis or medical study.

Pope Francis made the unusual decision, as universal legislator of the Church, to canonically investigate a layman, to judge for a second time an act already judged by ordinary justice and to "bypass" the principle of non-retroactivity, a basic and elemental thing of any rule of law with a minimum of guarantees. These events have meant that the only way out for José María is to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Meanwhile, as Religión Confidencial has already announced, Chema did not attend the summons with the Bishop of Teruel, José Antonio Satué, who at the time tried to coerce the professor, making him see that it is best for him to apologize and acknowledge what Juan says he did with him.

The professor's lawyers attended the summons and were able to see the decree signed by the Pope ordering the canonical investigation against this layman, a member of Opus Dei. Although there were parties interested in the canonical condemnation being before Easter, it seems that it will take time. José María Martínez Sanz will defend himself until the end and until the last consequences, as InfoVaticana has learned.

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