SPAIN
Los Angeles Times
By LAUREN FRAYER
Three Catholic priests and a teacher were arrested Monday in southern Spain’s Granada region, suspected of child sex abuse in a scandal that has shaken this traditionally Catholic country.
The arrested priests were among 10 clergymen the Catholic Church suspended from duty last week, after learning of abuse allegations. All four men were taken to national police headquarters, where they were to be held for 72 hours, and face a judge, according to police and Spain’s interior minister. No charges had yet been filed.
Monday’s arrests were the latest development in a sex abuse scandal that in recent weeks has rocked Spain, which has seen far fewer priestly abuse allegations than in the United States.
It began when a 24-year-old teacher from Granada wrote a five-page letter to Pope Francis, describing how several local priests sexually abused him as a child, when he was an altar boy in the Granada parish of Juan Maria de Vianneimeno. The alleged victim, identified only as “Daniel,” wrote that pedophile priests gradually persuaded him to leave his family and live in a parish rectory, where they repeatedly abused him.
He told Spanish media last week that he received a phone call in response to his letter from the pontiff, apologizing for the abuse and promising to investigate. The Vatican would neither confirm nor deny the phone call.
The Catholic Church then suspended 10 priests and two lay people who worked or volunteered in Granada dioceses.
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