EL PASO (TX)
El Paso Times
July 24, 2025
By Daniel Borunda
A Juárez priest was sentenced to four years plus 10 months in prison after he was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl 12 years ago, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said.
Eliseo R.S. took advantage of his role as a member of the clergy to sexually abuse the child inside a Catholic church on the Juárez-Porvernir highway in on June 2, 2013, the state attorney general’s office said in a news release on Monday, July 21.
The girl reported she was sexually molested by the priest during confession before making her first Communion, reported the Diario de Juárez. The child told her mother, who didn’t believe her, but her sister did, confiding a similar thing had happened to her, the newspaper reported.
The case was carried out by the state prosecutors office specializing on gender-related crimes against women and the family. He will serve his sentence at the Cereso No. 3 state prison in Juárez, officials stated.
The defendant’s last name was not disclosed by authorities in keeping with rules in Mexico regarding the naming of crime suspects. Information on how long he had been in the clergy was not immediately available.
The Catholic Diocese of Juárez said in a statement that it was accepting of the judicial proceedings and sentencing in the “spirit of listening and willingness to accept the necessary consequences.”
“We are conscious that no wound should be minimized or ignored. As a Church, we deeply regret any act that has caused suffering, scandal, or distrust in the hearts of God’s people,” the diocese said.
The diocese added that it would continue to “work with determination to ensure that our communities are safe places, where the dignity of every person — especially the most vulnerable — is protected and respected.”
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.