Events in Bolivia and Brazil may signal a turning point for the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis in Latin America
Published: June 14, 2023 1.34pm BST
Demonstrations in Bolivia in recent weeks have been directed at a seemingly unusual target: theCatholic Church.
More than three-fourths of the people in this Andean nation are Catholic, and Catholicism remained thereligion of the stateuntil 2009. Protests erupted, however, after the publication of diary entries from a deceased Spanish Jesuit priest, which detailed his sexual abuse of dozens of boys while teaching in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba during the 1970s and 1980s.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Brazil, a new book by two award-winning journalists has made the magnitude of the clerical sexual abuse crisis more visible.
Over the past two decades, sexual abuse scandals have rocked the Catholic Church nearly everywhere it has a presence. Latin America, where 4 in 10 of the world’s Catholics live, is no exception. Yet the church’s role in the region is distinct, as are the stakes.
Owing to centuries of Spanish and Portuguese colonization, the Catholic Church is deeply ingrained in Latin America’s societies and political institutions – a key theme in my research on 20th-century Peru.
High-profile cases have stirred public outrage in nearly all Latin American countries, notably Mexico, Peru and Chile, but concrete changes have been slow. The current circumstances in Brazil and Bolivia, I argue, could signal a new trend.
A surge of anger in Bolivia
In May 2023, hundreds of protesters gathered outside of an imposing art deco basilica in La Paz. Two men carried a mannequin dressed as a priest hanging by its neck with a placard reading, “Cura pillada, cura lynchada” – “A priest caught is a priest lynched.” Another demonstrator struggled against counterprotesters to spray-paint “Rapist” on the doors of the church. Similar demonstrations were seen throughout the country.
The anger was sparked following reporting from the Spanish newspaper El País, which gained access to the diary of the Spanish priest in Cochabamba, Rev. Alfonso Pedrajas, as part of an investigative project on sexual abuse by the clergy in Spain. The document had been in the Madrid attic of Pedrajas’ brother until the priest’s nephew came across it in 2021.
Pedrajas’ diary relates abuses he committed at a Catholic boys school in Cochabamba, where he worked for 17 years. By his own account, at least 85 boys suffered abuse, some as young as 12, and many who told other adults about his actions were expelled, according to El País.
https://theconversation.com/events-in-bolivia-and-brazil-may-signal-a-turning-point-for-the-catholic-churchs-sexual-abuse-crisis-in-latin-america-207292
All over the world, the picture is the same… systemic abuse… predator priests… human trafficking… baby farming… nuns raping little girls with crucifixes… far far worse… most cannot even imagine the atrocities…