The Diocese of Algarve is investigating an alleged case of abuse of minors by a priest who allegedly practiced in Boliqueime, after the denunciation of one of the alleged victims in a television program last October. The priest was “at your disposal” to clarify the matter and the Public Ministry has also been informed, announced the Diocese itself.
It was on the program “Goucha”, on TVI, on 6 October, that Telmo Simão exposed the case. According to the complainant, these abuses took place over 30 years ago, at the Casa dos Meninos (D. Francisco Gomes Institute), in Faro, where it was institutionalized.
According to the alleged victim, the sexual abuses to which "most of the institutionalized youths" were subjected also involved "monitors" from the House of Boys.
“We would be beaten if we spoke: the institution itself protected what was happening”, reported Telmo Simão.
The case has already led to a reaction on the part of the Church. In a statement sent to newsrooms this Thursday, November 25, the Diocese of Algarve explains that, despite "neither before nor after the broadcast of the television program", it received "any complaint", the Bishop decided to summon the Diocesan Commission of the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Adults «to hear your opinion on this case».
D. Manuel Neto Quintas, Algarvian prelate, heard the experts, “communicated the case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, informed the Public Ministry of the District of Faro and determined the carrying out of a previous investigation, in canonical terms, to verify the credibility of the complaint», reads the same communiqué.
This investigation is being carried out by the Commission of Inquiry and, according to the Diocese, the "priest on whom these suspicions fall has immediately made himself available" to clarify the case.
Moreover, according to the Catholic Church in the Algarve, it was the Diocese itself that contacted the alleged victim, whom he did not know, to "establish a first contact".
As for the Casa dos Meninos, «it has, and never had, any connection to the Diocese of the Algarve», concludes the statement.
Contacted by Sul Informação, António Barão, president of the Instituto D. Francisco Gomes, said that this case "is unknown to the institution", even because "there were never any priests" in the Casa dos Meninos.
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