Madrid Cardinal dismisses priest accused of sexual assault in Argentina. Vatican ignored case.

 Osoro dismisses priest accused of sexual assault

The Archbishop of Madrid, Carlos Osoro, has removed a priest of Argentinian origin from a parish in the south of Madrid after receiving a complaint.

The complaint from the woman, also of Argentinian origin, reached the abuse offices of the Madrid archbishopric this April. In the complaint filed with the Archdiocese of Madrid, the woman claims that between 1982 and 1983, when she was 9 and 10 years old, she was sexually abused and assaulted by this priest after her first communion catechism classes in a parish in the province of Mendoza, in Argentina.

The complainant claims that the priest in question took advantage of her innocence to abuse and sexually assault her. "In the bed of the room he undressed me, touched me and asked me to masturbate him," reads the complaint filed by the woman.

Four years after being abused, she told her mother, who went to the parish to demand to know the whereabouts of the alleged paedophile. The parish claimed that the priest, born in Argentina but with a Spanish father and Italian mother, was deceased.

In 2018, it discovered that the priest had not died. He was still practising the priesthood in Italy. With the help of a Spanish journalist in Italy, she managed to find the whereabouts of her alleged abuser whom she identified.

In September 2022, this priest left Italy to move to the capital of Spain. The complainant claims that she identified him again a few days ago in a church in Madrid where he was appointed parish priest on his arrival in Spain. Furthermore, as detailed in the complaint, he returned to Spain a few months after the statute of limitations had expired for the criminal offence in Spain.

The woman complains to the Archbishopric of Madrid that she was subjected to "rape by this priest when she was a minor, forced and continuous sexual aggression and abuse, demands of masturbatory satisfaction from the catechist priest, with the aggravating factors of aggravation, defencelessness, inferiority and ignorance in my condition as a minor and abuse of superiority".

The priest has been removed from his position as parish priest after the archdiocese received the complaint against him. The alleged paedophile, aged 68, belongs to the Ramón Pané Priestly Fraternity congregation founded by the Honduran Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga.

In a report annexed to the complaint, he explains "the failed attempt" he suffered to present the complaint to the Vatican authorities.

Source