"Don't denounce your uncle" and "pray for me": Pope's reactions to an abuse victim

From a 2020 article 

With these words, the leader of the Catholic Church, responded to Sergio Decuyper, who denounced his paternal uncle and priest of Entre Rios for abuse.

The criminal case for sexual abuse against the priest of Entre Ríos, José Francisco Decuyper, who was denounced by his own nephew, had a change of prosecutor.

Now the investigation will be in charge of Gilberto Robledo, member of the Fiscal Unit of the region of Diamante, since the denounced outrage, happened in the locality of Puiggari, that belongs to that Department of Entre Ríos.

The investigation took shape when Sergio Decuyper, victim of abuse by his paternal uncle and Catholic priest, spoke, last September 19, through a virtual platform, with the members of the Prosecutor's Office of Gender Violence and Sexual Abuse of the Judiciary of Entre Rios, Fernanda Ruffatti and Leandro Dato, on whom the case first fell.

Sergio currently lives in the Basque Country, and at the beginning of 2019 he recalled the abuse he suffered at the hands of the priest José Francisco Decuyper, who is also his uncle. The events took place in the country house of his paternal grandparents, in the town of Puiggari, 45 kilometres from the city of Paraná.

After externalising what had happened in therapy and with the support of his current family, Sergio decided to denounce the case to the Roman Curia. He filed a complaint in his own handwriting at the Vatican itself.

What he got in response was an e-mail signed by the Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for General Affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State, in which he was informed "to acknowledge receipt of your attentive email of August 27th addressed to the Holy Father, in which you explain your situation".

Furthermore, in an act of unspeakable brazenness, the text adds: "Pope Francis asks you to pray for him and his service to the Church and, invoking the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, imparts the Apostolic Blessing, which he extends to his loved ones", making it clear that the only intervention of the ecclesiastical leader in the case, will be through prayer.

When asked by La Izquierda Diario, Sergio admitted that he felt that from the ecclesiastical leadership "they do not care about the victims", making the whole process "very slow", thus generating a constant and painful re-victimisation.

However, this response is not surprising for Sergio, who thanks to his insistence managed to be received by Pope Francis himself, in mid-September, who urged him to dismiss his complaint for reasons of health of his uncle and abuser.

"Don't denounce. Your uncle is lost. Your uncle has dementia. With these words, the Catholic leader ratified the cover-up of a member of the church, a systematic doctrine used to protect abusers.

At present, José Francisco Decuyper is 85 years old and suffers from Alzheimer's. He has been retired from active church life since 2004. He is currently staying at the Jesús Buen Pastor Priestly Home in Paraná, under the protection of the Curia of Entre Ríos.

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