ROME – Nearly 15 years after “Carlos” was allegedly abused while in minor seminary and after countless complaints both locally and in Rome, a canonical process has finally been ordered against his apparent abuser, but with a few snags.
Among other things, “Carlos,” a false name, said that it took 15 years for a canonical procedure to be opened last spring, and even then, he was not informed that this step had been taken.
After finding out about it only in recent weeks, Carlos said he was shocked to see that the case is being tried in the ecclesiastical province of Toledo in Spain, where his abuser is from, and that the archbishop set to oversee the case and appoint judges is someone he has denounced for coverup in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
Carlos said he was sexually abused as a minor by his spiritual director, Father Pedro Francisco Rodríguez Ramos, while attending the minor seminary Santo Tomás de Villanueva in Toledo.
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He first mentioned the alleged abuse to church authorities in the region in 2009, and his mother informed the then-Archbishop of Toledo, Braulio Rodríguez Plaza, in March 2010, but apparently no action was taken until 2021, after the case went public in Spanish media.
During the civil trial, Rodríguez Ramos confirmed in his testimony that the archdiocese had known about Carlos’s accusations in 2010.
Carlos filed a civil complaint against Rodríguez Ramos in 2016, and the priest was found guilty in October 2023. However, Rodríguez Ramos was acquitted on appeal on grounds that an error in the preliminary investigation harmed his defense, but his guilt over the abuse allegations was not questioned.
Carlos is currently waiting for his own appeal to the acquittal to be considered, and last summer the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office recommended that the original guilty verdict be upheld.
Given the lack of action by the Archdiocese of Toledo, with Rodríguez Ramos remaining in ministry and receiving various new positions until 2021, Carlos made regular complaints to the Vatican against Rodríguez Ramos starting in 2022.
In 2023, he accused Rodríguez Plaza and the current archbishop of Toledo, Francisco Cerro, of coverup and negligence, as well as Bishop César García Magán, auxiliary bishop of Toledo the former secretary general of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.
Carlos at the time also denounced a fourth bishop from a diocese near Toledo of coverup and negligence in his case.
He has filed formal complaints for coverup against these individuals and others in the Vatican Dicasteries for Bishops and for Clergy, and with the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, in addition to his complaints to the DDF.
He has also had personal contact with Pope Francis about his case, finally meeting the pontiff in December 2023 after writing several letters. The two have stayed in touch, and maintain regular contact.
While the Vatican’s typical modus operandi in clerical abuse cases where a civil procedure is also underway is to let civil justice take its course before beginning their own canonical proceedings, in Carlos’s case, the DDF, which handles abuse cases, ordered the opening of a canonical process last March, according to documents which Crux has seen.
In Carlos’s view, this decision was likely made given Rodríguez Ramos’s initial guilty verdict and the fact he was acquitted on a technicality, not over any doubt regarding the abuse allegations themselves.
Starting a canonical procedure prior to the end of a civil case marks an unusual break in the church’s usual way of doing business and is a precedent Carlos hopes can help bring justice to other victims.
However, even still, he flagged what he said were several serious flaws in how the canonical procedure so far has unfolded.
Carlos said he only found out about the canonical procedure after receiving a letter a few weeks ago, nearly a year after the DDF in March 2024 decided to open a canonical inquiry, at his former place of employment, where he no longer works.
According to the canonical documents Crux has seen, the DDF tasked the ecclesiastical province of Toledo with handling the case, despite Carlos’s various complaints of coverup against members of the local hierarchy. It then took six months for a panel of judges to be appointed by Cerro.
Canonists consulted by Crux said that once a request to open a canonical procedure is made, it can take some time to put the panel together, but the period of six months is notably unusual.
Carlos said that when he found out about the canonical procedure, he was frustrated and disappointed that he had not been informed sooner, and was shocked to see that it had been assigned to Toledo given his various complaints about their inaction over the years.
He said he was even more surprised that Cerro was the one tasked with appointing a panel of judges to preside over the case, as he’d lodged a complaint against him for coverup with the Dicastery for Bishops in November 2023.
Given that complaint, Carlos has filed a motion requesting that his case be transferred to another ecclesiastical province, and that Cerro be removed from the process.
He lamented that it should never have happened in the first place, saying “it goes against human rights to entrust the process to the same archbishop that I have denounced.”
“Clear steps should be taken by the Catholic Church to show seriousness in resolving these matters and preserving and guaranteeing human rights and the protection of victims and survivors,” he said, saying the canonical process is often “difficult, slow and a source of continuous revictimization.”
Carlos voiced frustration over the difficulty of achieving progress, saying he is lucky to have the pope’s backing and confiding that he shared with the pontiff his recent motion requesting an impartial process and the removal of Toledo ecclesiastical authorities from the case.
“I am privileged to count on the advice and support of Pope Francis. To date, only him and a few other priests have committed to listening to me and helping me when I most needed it,” he said, but lamented that “It should not be necessary to speak to the pope for a fair and impartial process to be carried out. Do all victims have to come to see him to be heard?”
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen
