SPAIN
Irish Times
Guy Hedgecoe
Fri, Nov 21, 2014
The archbishop of the southern Spanish city of Granada has been summoned to the Vatican this weekend to explain why he failed to take firmer action against a group of priests in his city who are being investigated for organising a longstanding child abuse ring.
The case came to the Vatican’s attention this spring, when a young man who claimed to have suffered brutal sexual abuse at the hands of several priests wrote to Pope Francis, appealing for help.
The alleged victim, who is 24 and whose name has not been revealed, claims that three priests and a layperson repeatedly raped him from the age of 13 until he was 17.
‘Extremely serious sin’
The pope responded to the letter, telephoning the alleged victim in person in August and asking him to “forgive this extremely serious sin”, according to the newspaper Religión Digital. Pope Francis also told him that “people are already working so that all of this can be resolved.”
The Vatican then contacted the archbishop of Granada, Francisco Martínez, requesting that he investigate and take necessary action.
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