SPAIN
Business Ghana
Spain’s Catholic Church has expelled a priest over paedophilia, the bishop’s office on Majorca Island said Thursday.
An internal investigation had showed that Pere Barcelo had violated the sixth commandment with minors, the office said on its website. The sixth commandment prohibits adultery. Barcelo was therefore expelled from priesthood as “the maximum punishment,” the statement added.
Barcelo was the first priest in Spain to have been barred from office over paedophilia, according to media reports. Barcelo had been removed from his duties in the locality of Can Picafort already in 2011, when a woman reported him to the bishop’s office, saying he had abused her when she was a child.
Two other women also reported the priest for abuse, the daily Diario de Mallorca reported. One of them said she had been constantly abused and raped by him in 1997 and 1998, when she was 10 and 11.
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