EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and a database updated with all known cases. If you are aware of a case that has not seen the light of day, you can write to us at: Abusos@elpais.es. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: abusesamerica@elpais.es.
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Opus Dei recognized Thursday that the first accusations of pedophilia in San Sebastian in the 1980s against priest Jacinto Lázaro Laguardia, a priest of the Work who has just been denounced for sexual assault on minors in Pamplona in the 1990s, are also “plausible”. The organization did so in a statement released after the publication of the case in EL PAÍS, in which it added new details about the three accusations against the priest contained in the information.
The oldest accusation comes from a former student of the Erain de la Obra school for men, in San Sebastian, between 1981 and 1982. The second, reported last month in a court in Pamplona, even if the facts would have prescribed, concerns sexual assaults committed by the priest of the Irabia school, in the Navarrese capital, between 1994 and 1996. L’Opus Dei admitted to the case and claims to have known about it in 1998, although he did not report it to authorities. He only prohibited the religious from exercising his ministry with minors and transferred him to another city. The latest accusation comes from an adult woman from Madrid who reported abuse and harassment in 2023, and which led the entity to impose disciplinary measures on the priest.
On Wednesday, questioned by this newspaper about the first case that occurred in San Sebastián, the Work only indicated that it had investigated it, after having learned about it from EL PAÍS in 2024, but did not specify its conclusions. In his Thursday note, he already admits that the accusations are “plausible”. Furthermore, regarding the case of Pamplona, he points out that the article in this newspaper “mentions new information for us”, in reference to the fact that Opus Dei claims to only have knowledge “of the 1998 accusation, since there was no news of any other”. “Based on this information, we will study how to proceed,” he concludes.
Jacinto Lázaro, in office in Zaragoza since 2006 and banned from exercising public ministry, denied all the accusations made against this newspaper during a telephone conversation: “Obviously, I do not admit the facts. (…) I have been a priest for 49 years, I have worked in countless schools and I do not think I will find anyone who has a complaint against me in this sense.”
Opus Dei reiterated this Thursday its pain for what happened: “We ask for forgiveness, we express our deep regret for the suffering that these situations have caused and our closeness to all those affected. We regret that events of this type have occurred and we reaffirm our willingness to offer our support and collaborate in everything that can contribute to their healing process.”
The testimony of the case of Saint-Sébastien collected by this newspaper is that of a former student of the Erain school in the capital Saint-Sébastien, who reported that between 1981 and 1982 the priest, then chaplain of the center and also of the women’s school of the Work, Eskibel, subjected him to touching: “He was also chaplain of the Ayete residence and, I no longer remember why, one day I stayed to sleep there. put me to sleep on a couch, and at night he came and touched me, he touched my genitals, it didn’t go any further, and I didn’t have a reaction, I didn’t do anything. But the next morning I left and told my father that the man is missing, they sent him I don’t know where, but as far as I know they only moved him, they didn’t do anything else.
La Obra indicates that it opened an investigation after learning of this testimony in May 2024, through the fifth report with new cases of pedophilia by the clergy that EL PAÍS handed over to the Spanish Church and the Vatican. “The investigation was carried out from June to November, confirming, on the one hand, that the accusations were credible, and on the other hand, that the authorities of the Prelature had not previously been aware of the facts mentioned,” summarizes the entity. He emphasizes that “at the time these accusations were not known, so neither the priest left his position nor moved for this reason.” “The one who accuses him preferred not to present his testimony for the opening of a canonical trial,” he specifies. Regardless, the victim confirmed to this newspaper that he had corroborated his account to Opus Dei, with unequivocal details of how he informed the Erain school administration of the events.
In 2024, Labor details to this newspaper that, according to its data, Lázaro stopped being chaplain at the Erain school in 1985, and that he continued in the city until 1993, the year he was transferred to Pamplona. The sexual assaults in this city on another minor, according to the complaint filed last month, began the following year. Until his departure from San Sebastián, Jacinto Lázaro was responsible, among other things, for the Ayete residence, already reserved for young university students and not for minors.
Opus Dei also confirmed that in the same school in San Sebastian, Erain, it had investigated another strange event that occurred in those years, reported by this newspaper, according to the testimonies of former students: the attempted suicide of a gymnastics teacher and coach of the school’s football team. “Regarding the sports teacher, following the news published in 2024, the Erain school carried out an investigation from which no definitive conclusions were drawn since the accused died,” La Obra responded to questions from this newspaper.
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