Ourense (EFE)
The Diocese has issued a brief statement this afternoon in which it indicates that Bishop Leonardo Lemos, in accordance with the current protocols of the Holy See and the Spanish Episcopal Confederation, has adopted this determination, as the priest is “involved” in these proceedings judicial.
“Out of respect for the judicial proceedings in progress, the privacy of the victims and the presumption of innocence of the investigated, the Diocese of Ourense, which expresses its total availability to collaborate with the Administration of Justice, will not make any additional statement to this statement. until the end of the judicial procedure ”, the note abounds.
The priest from Santiago de Corneda and San Esteban de Cangués, in the O Carballiño region, has a restraining order, for which he cannot come closer than 500 meters from where his brother’s daughters are, who have put two independent complaints for alleged sexual assaults against both on a continuous basis.
The precautionary measure, as reported to EFE today by judicial sources, was issued last Saturday by the duty court of Ourense, the number one investigation court, headed by the dean, Leonardo Álvarez.
The noted religious, a native of Vistahermosa, in the city of Ourense, was ordained in 1995.
Abuses from childhood to adolescence
One of the two sisters from Ourense who have denounced their uncle for abuse and assault of a sexual nature, in her case from childhood up to the age of 17, says that “it was a long road” that she walked to give a name to experiences for those that have happened, and not alone, a detail that he learned later.
The new and complete complaint that she formalized last week at the National Police station in her city includes the alleged violations and other harassment, the “horrible memories” that caused her, in her words, unbearable psychological and physical pain.
In 2019, when he dared to speak, he resorted to the ordinary jurisdiction, but at that time he could only verbalize alleged touching. And she found that those crimes against sexual freedom that she exposed have a statute of limitations of ten years from her coming of age. She, albeit just barely, had exceeded that time.
With this firm step now, the same one that the youngest of the two has decided to take (according to the version she provides, she suffered abuse and sexual assault until she was 13 years old), this Galician seeks justice and, at the same time, ” make visible and raise awareness.
“It was a very long road”
In the case of her alleged attacker, she told EFE, in a talk in which she preserved her anonymity, the worst thing was that her alleged abuser continued to practice until this afternoon, “in contact with minors” and in positions of responsibility within the Catholic Church, to which they have filed a canonical complaint before the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It has taken a long time for the older of the two girls, who is now 31 years old, to be able to give voice to her past, to a childhood and adolescence without “happy moments”, stages to which she would not return “not even crazy”.
“When a predator of this caliber enters your life and lays the seed of fear, it begins to germinate for so many years that… you are terrified of it. When I started to rebel and get angry, the threats, the psychological violence, the brutal psychological abuse also began”.
“It was a very long road”, he delves into the conversation and appreciates the treatment received by the professionals of the Family and Women’s Care Unit (UFAM) of the National Police, to whom he gave a statement last Wednesday.