The commission on pedophilia in the Church of the Parliament of Catalonia received on Tuesday what is usually called a slap without a hand. It was given by a victim of this scourge, Josep Roqueta. This man, who as a child was raped “more than 50 times by the late brother Arnaldo Farré Bujardón, of the Sants Maristsâ€, wondered aloud: “What do I expect from this commission? That you leave the cell phone and listen to us â€.
In the room there were five deputies and deputies: from the PSC, ERC, Junts, Comuns and the CUP (which had to be absent in the middle of the session, although it said that it would follow the debate on the Parliament’s online channel). A Vox deputy initially attended the event, but before starting she acknowledged that she had made the wrong room and that she was going to another place. The representatives of Ciutadans and PP did not physically appear at the commission.
Five victims or parents of victims have asked for justice before the commission of investigation on pedophilia in the Church, which is called that, although it addresses other abuses, such as those that occur in the family, “the most numerous”, according to Alexandra Membrive, from the association El mundo de los ASI (for child sexual abuse), and Aurora MartÃn, victim of abuse by several relatives for four years.
Witness accounts of victims of Church sexual predators, however, took the cake. The forcefulness of Josep Roqueta, who appeared together with Manuel Barbero, father of a son raped by another Marist religious, Joan BenÃtez, el Beni, sentenced to 21 years in prison, particularly drew attention. Josep Roqueta managed to record a confession from his executioner. His story was published in 2016.
“The next day, and without my knowing how he got my mobile phone number, a senior official from the congregation, Brother Mariano SantamarÃa, called me and told me: ‘After so long, the institution did not deserve this.’ That hurts more than the 50 rapes, than everything you had to swallow. It hurts more than anything else,” denounced Josep Roqueta at the parliamentary headquarters. And it was not the only reproach of him.
Even the president of the commission, Susanna Segovia Sánchez, from En Comú Podem, apologized “if we have given the impression that we were not paying attention.” The witness, without pointing to anyone, criticized that “someone in the room has been on mobile phone 80% of the time, two other people have been on 50% and the other two intermittently.” When she said it, only two parliamentarians met her gaze.
When he was eight years old, the writer Alejandro Palomas was raped “on Tuesdays and Thursdays†by a religious from La Salle in Premià de Mar, also deceased, brother Jesús Linares. This victim also disfigured the behavior of parliamentarians. “Who are you? What is your name? Why haven’t you introduced yourself? Why don’t you look me in the eye? Please do it. That this is not like going to the doctor and talking to a machine.
The latest work by this author, This is not said, should be mandatory reading in Parliament. A fact reveals the level of preparation of the commission: Palomas himself was cited as a “representative of the 0 Tolerance Platform.” But that platform “no longer exists”, the interested party specified before admitting that he did not expect anything from the commission. He also wanted to know why not all parties were represented in the room.
Those absent were Vox (who came by “mistaken” and left), PP and Ciutadans. “It is the discretion of each designated deputy to appear or not,” the president clarified. “It would have been nice if the absentees had at least excused themselves because many times they present themselves as champions of good education,†replied the 2018 Nadal prize winner, who does not have children, and asked the parliamentarians if they did.
“You are fathers and mothers. And we are talking about children. If you, who should be the first concerned, do not fight, it is brutal schizophreniaâ€. Both Palomas and Miguel Hurtado, who suffered abuse during his adolescence by a monk from Montserrat, insisted that the Church has covered up the sexual abuse. His case proves it. Also those explained by Josep Roqueta and Manuel Barbero.
The parliamentary commission of Catalonia is the first in all of Spain, but it comes almost eight years after the Maristas or Montserrat cases, which have marked a before and after. “There are still ten schools in Catalonia that segregate by sex. How is it possible? And how is it possible that subsidies to subsidized religious schools where abuses are recorded are not withdrawn?†Alejandro Palomas wondered.
