The Bolivian Network of Church Abuse Survivors objected this month to the expulsion of the laicized priest Francesc Peris, 84, from the Society of Jesus.
A leader of the survivors’ group said the Jesuits made only a “symbolic” expulsion of the priest, who is accused of sexually abusing 22 minors in Spain and Bolivia between 1974 and 2004, and that it does not address the Jesuit’s “complicity” in the priest’s sexual misconduct.
The measure was announced by the Jesuits on Oct. 5. In a statement, the order said that a canonical process had found Peris guilty of several offenses.
Born in Catalonia, Peris has been living in a Jesuit residence for the past few years and has not been engaged in pastoral activities. While he has been laicized and is no longer a member of the Society of Jesus, he will continue to live in a Jesuit residence.
An agreement between Peris and the order stipulates that he may not have contact with minors or vulnerable adults, leave the residence without authorization, or contact his victims.
Earlier this year, a Spanish court ruled that Peris – known as Padre Cesc among students – could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired. The most recent complaint against him dated to 2004.
But Pedro Lima, a spokesperson for the Bolivian Survivors’ Network, told The Pillar that in his view, expelling an 84-year-old who benefited from the Society of Jesus’ complicity for decades – during which it failed to take measures to prevent further crimes or punish him – appears to be an opportunistic move.
“He is convalescing and on the verge of death, having spent his entire life protected and enjoying impunity. They will not actually expel him. He will continue living with the Jesuits until his final day. It is merely a symbolic gesture,” Lima said.
Peris is a “sacrificial lamb,” Lima continued, adding that “the worldwide Society of Jesus has already suffered serious damage to its reputation and is now seeking to use him to clean up its image and make a show of supposed justice.”
The loss of Peris’ clerical status was hardly significant, Lima argued, since he was already unable to celebrate Mass. He could no longer work, either, and was of no further use to the Jesuits, “even as the Third World priest and revolutionary he portrayed himself as being.”
“And what happens when someone is expelled? The victims are told to sort things out with him themselves, because he is no longer part of the organization. It is an easy way to wash their hands of the matter and avoid institutional responsibility,” Lima said.
According to victims, Peris had been abusing minors since the 1960s. He taught at Casp–Sagrat Cor de Jesús, a school run by the Catalan Jesuits in Barcelona since 1881. He would single out students and call them out of class to his room, ostensibly to provide spiritual guidance.
That was when the abuse allegedly took place. Over time, his reputation as an abuser spread among students.
After several complaints, Peris was sent to Bolivia in 1983, where he worked at the Juan XXIII school in Cochabamba. The Jesuits founded the institution in the 1960s to provide an education for disadvantaged students in the region, many of them children of mine workers.
What initially appeared to be a promising opportunity soon became a nightmare for many boys and girls, according to numerous reports. Several Jesuits, along with a few teachers, would reportedly summon children and teenagers at night and abuse them.
The abuses committed by Jesuits at Juan XXIII came to public attention in 2023, when the Spanish newspaper El País published an article about Father Alfonso Pedrajas, a Catalan Jesuit known as Padre Pica. For more than five decades, Pedrajas kept a diary in which he documented the abuse he had committed, sometimes in graphic detail. The diary refers to more than 80 victims.
The case became a national scandal in Bolivia and severely damaged the public image of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church as a whole in the South American country. Some victims had remained in contact and discussed the El País article. An initial group of former Juan XXIII students then decided to establish a survivors’ association. Dozens of victims have joined them since. As the network grew, other alleged abusers came to light, and the group began building legal cases against several of them.
Padre Cesc worked in Cochabamba for only one year before returning to Spain in 1984. Even during that brief period, however, victims say he continued to abuse children. According to their accounts, he acted much like Padre Pica, reportedly touching victims while they slept.
Allegations did not stop after the priest’s return to the Sacred Heart of Jesus school in Barcelona. It was only in 2005, following a series of complaints, that the Jesuits finally decided to remove him from the school and transfer him to a residence.
Bolivia’s Survivors’ Network has reported several alleged abusers, including Padre Cesc, to the Jesuit provincials in the Andean country. According to the network, the order’s leaders repeatedly failed to take action.
Earlier this year, the Bolivian Congress asked the Catalan parliament to launch an interparliamentary investigation into the conduct of the Catalan Jesuits in Spain and Bolivia. In September, the Catalan parliament shelved the request.
The survivors’ group accused the Society of Jesus of operating like a criminal conspiracy in Bolivia, with several priests allegedly committing serial sexual abuse and an entire hierarchy, led by provincial superiors, working to cover up the crimes.
“Deep down, the Jesuits are asking the Spanish people for forgiveness. Bolivia and the victims in Bolivia don’t count as far as they’re concerned. Once again, they are treating us as if we don’t matter,” Lima said.
They are asking for forgiveness, “but we must tell them forcefully that forgiveness is not the same as justice,” he added. Not only the perpetrators of sexual abuse, whether alive or dead, must be denounced, but also those who covered up the crimes and their accomplices, Lima argued.
“And those people are still alive and still in Bolivia, along with the entire Jesuit leadership in Spain and at the Vatican. It is time to expose these charades of justice and demand comprehensive reparation,” he concluded.