This Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV visited the Montserrat Abbey, a symbol of the Church and the identity of Catalonia, but also of the pedophile scandal. It was in this place where one of the most serious cases of this autonomous community arose, uncovered by this newspaper in January 2019: the last three abbots of the monastery, those before the current one, and accusations have emerged against three friars with at least 15 victims. None of them have received compensation, except for the last known one, in 2024, according to data from Miguel Hurtado, the first victim who came to light. It is an example of that “open sore” that the Pope admitted upon his arrival in Spain. However, Leo XIV did not allude to the scandal in his speech to the Benedictine community. The abbey itself and . Nor has the current abbot, Manel Gasch i Hurios, in office since 2021, made any mention of the issue in his speech.
In this way, unless the Pontiff addresses the problem in one of the events on Wednesday afternoon, it is likely that he will leave Catalonia on Thursday morning without alluding to the scandal, since the appointment in Montserrat was the most favorable occasion. It confirms the low profile that the Spanish Church and the Vatican are trying to give to the issue. The Pope only referred to the phenomenon on Monday, in a brief passage of his speech to the bishops in Madrid. He then met with six victims in a confidential manner, chosen because they had no relationship with the media. However, in Catalonia it is a significant omission, as it is the territory where the most cases have been recorded in Spain, some of them with the most media coverage.
According to the EL PAÍS database, the only one on the phenomenon, given the refusal of the Spanish Church to provide clear information, this autonomous community registers the highest number of cases of pedophilia by the clergy: 236 accused and at least 506 victims. The oldest is dated 1941 and the most recent is dated 2024.
By province, 176 of these cases occurred in Barcelona, 22 in Tarragona, 20 in Lleida and 11 in Girona. In the remaining five, the province is unknown. By institutions, the archdiocese of Barcelona has the most, 44. It is followed by the orders of the Marists (36), Jesuits (31), La Salle (18), Piarists (10) and Claretians (9). Among the Augustinians, the order to which the Pope belongs, there is none. In total, in at least 31 of these cases there are accusations or suspicions of a cover-up.
On the other hand, as EL PAÍS has confirmed, at the Pope’s meeting with the Spanish Augustinians on Sunday, there was Agustín Alcalde, prior provincial of the order between 2010 and 2014 and responsible for not having opened an internal investigation for sexual abuse of a 6-year-old girl and for having covered up the matter, despite the fact that there was a police complaint in 2010. Furthermore, in that period, Robert Prevost, the future pontiff, was the general prior of the order. The Augustinians have assured that they were not informed.
The victim accused an Augustinian, Álvaro Martín Fuente, from the Buen Consejo school in Madrid, and points out that the order knew about it 16 years ago, covered it up and did nothing. The order, when asked by this newspaper about the presence of the Mayor at the meeting with Leo XIV, responded: “All the Augustinians who could and wanted to be present were at the meeting.”
In his speech in Montserrat, the Pope called for abandoning “hurtful words” and aggressiveness in social networks and politics. It is one of his fundamental ideas, which he has already presented during these days in Spain: overcoming differences and seeking the unity of each community. The message of Jesus, he said, “unmasks the violence that can hide in our words and attitudes: the criticism that humiliates, the condemnation that destroys and the aggressiveness that divides.” He asked the Virgin “to teach us to renounce hurtful words, immediate judgment, murmuring and slander.” “May we learn to guard and cultivate love in the family, among friends, in the workplace, in social networks, in political debates and in Christian communities, so that hatred gives way to hope and peace,” he concluded.
“It is ground zero for pedophilia”
But not a word about pedophilia. The first whistleblower from Montserrat, Miguel Hurtado, one of the most active victims in the fight against this scourge, but at least I hoped that, since he was going, he would refer to the scandal. This Wednesday he went to the monastery and was disappointed. In statements to journalists, he described the place as “ground zero of Catalan clerical pedophilia”: “Coming here to Montserrat, knowing that the institution refuses to compensate its victims, it is doing the opposite of what it says: this does not heal, this is pouring salt into the wound.”
“The Pope has deepened the credibility crisis of his pontificate regarding the fight against the plague of pedophilia in the church. In his meeting with victims he excludes activists. He goes to the scene of the crime, Montserrat, without speaking with the victim of the crime or repairing the damage caused. To finish off the task at ground zero of Catalan clerical pedophilia, he talks about human dignity without mentioning the elephant in the room. The crimes of pedophilia committed by three monks against 15 children for four decades, covered up by three abbots. Worse impossible,” he told EL PAÍS.
The first major case that arose in Spain was that of the Sants-Les Corts school of the Marists of Barcelona, in 2014, thanks to the courage of the father of a student, Manuel Barbero, who posted 200 posters on the walls around the school. It led to , for continued sexual abuse of four minors between 2006 and 2009. They were the only non-barred cases of at least 26 victims who accused him of abuse from 1980 to 2011. Another 25 teachers at the center, also named, went unpunished and the majority of the hundred victims were not treated or compensated. In any case, it was the first case in which an order accepted, from its centers, a total of 353,000 euros.
Other sources of scandals have been the Jesuit schools, a total of nine have been affected, mainly those of Casp and Sarrià, with serious cases of cover-up. Some defendants were transferred from one school to another and were sometimes sent to Latin America. An example is the story of Chesco Peris and Lluis Tó, moved to Bolivia. In Tó’s case, it was after the Provincial Court of Barcelona convicted him of abusing a girl in 1992. EL PAÍS uncovered this case in 2018 and, as a result, up to 16 other victims emerged. The Marists also transferred defendants from their order to Chile.
However, one of the most alarming cases of cover-up was that of the priest Jordi Senabre, parish priest of Polinyà, in Barcelona, who disappeared after being . In reality, as revealed by EL PAÍS in 2018. He was sent as a missionary, did not reveal his whereabouts and hid him until this newspaper found him in Ecuador. Three bishops of the city knew all those years where it was, all cardinals: Ricard Maria Carles, Lluís Martínez i Sistach and Juan José Omella.
In published by EL PAÍS on the eve of the Pope’s arrival in Spain there is a majority of Catalan bishops, a total of nine. Of them, four are or have been cardinals: Narcís Jubany, Ricard Maria Carles, Lluís Martínez i Sistach and the current archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omella, who is accompanying the Pope in the Catalan capital these two days. Omella also, against pedophilia, as revealed by this newspaper on Tuesday. In addition, seven superiors of religious orders are also accused of cover-up: four of the Jesuits, one of the Piarists and the three abbots of Montserrat.
