RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – Vatican sends the late priest Alfonso dairy back to Bolivia amid sex abuse scandal.
The late priest Alfonso Pedrajas is accused of sexually abusing children while working in Bolivian boarding schools.
On Thursday, the Society of Jesus of Bolivia acknowledged that it had received a copy of the diary belonging to the late Alfonso Pedrajas, a Jesuit priest accused of abusing dozens of minors.
The diary was then turned over to prosecutors in the city of Cochabamba.
The contents of the diary were first brought to light in the Spanish newspaper El País in April, as part of its ongoing investigation into the Spanish Catholic Church.
Pedrajas had kept detailed accounts of the child sexual abuse he committed in Bolivia, dating as far back as the 1970s. He died of cancer in 2009.
Pope Francis promised to ensure “the full cooperation of the Church to work alongside the government” as it investigates the allegations.
He also expressed sorrow over the ongoing revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, calling them “deplorable”.
Pedrajas, known as Father Pica, was placed in the 1970s at Jesuit boarding schools for impoverished youth, primarily in Cochabamba.
Since April, more than 200 people in the country have expressed that they too suffered abuse at religious-run schools.