Euro Weekly
March 31, 2011
http://www.euroweeklynews.com/2011033186506/news/mallorca/can-picafort-priest-suspended-for-child-abuse-allegations.html
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THE Mallorca Bishopric has suspended the Can Picafort parish priest from his duties following accusations of alleged sexual abuse to minors. This was revealed by a report contained in the online version of Spanish daily, Diario de Mallorca which also wrote that an exhaustive internal investigation is being carried out into the accusations against by the Mallorca Church.
Pere Barcelo is accused of molesting young girls in and out of the island more than a decade ago. It has not been revealed if there are any cases of alleged abuse in recent years.
The Bishop of Mallorca, Jesus Murgui informed the priest the decision, prohibiting him from giving mass both in Can Picafort as in any other parish.
He was reported to the Guardia Civil mid 1998 by a Christian teacher who claimed that months earlier he caught Barcelo in the rectory allegedly abusing a 10-year-old girl.
The teacher also gave the authorities a list of names of children who corroborated the priest's alleged abuse.
The Balearics Public Prosecutor shelved the case after a few months, but reported the case to the Bishop at the time, Teodor Ubeda, but seemingly no action was taken until a journalist, Mateu Ferrer, exposed the alleged acts in a television documentary last October.
This weekend, parish priests from the north of Mallorca are expected to meet to decide who will take over the now vacant parish.
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