Pope Francis sends top sex crimes investigator to Bolivia as abuse scandal escalates

[Judi Lynn]

Carlos Valdez – Associated Press
May 23, 2023



Former Jesuit Pedro Lima stops to talk to journalists after landing at El Alto international airport in El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, May 22, 2023, before traveling to the capital La Paz to make a statement at the public prosecutors office related to a church pedophilia scandal. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)


LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Pope Francis has sent one of his top sex crimes investigators to Bolivia at a time when the Andean nation is being shaken by an escalating pedophilia scandal involving priests.

Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, a leading member of the church's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, arrived in Bolivia on the same day as a former Jesuit seminarian landed in the country vowing to reveal more information about alleged cases of abuse.

The Bolivian Episcopal Conference said Bertomeu’s visit is not directly related to the recent sex abuse allegations but had been planned earlier to analyze “the progress made in the field of the culture of prevention” promoted by the Vatican.

Bertomeu arrived in Bolivia from Paraguay, where he had been investigating similar accusations against church officials and in 2018 he led the investigation into abuses committed by priests against minors in Chile.

More:
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/05/23/sexual-abuse-jesuits-bolivia-245347