Searching for Justice: “The Church of Mendoza Keeps Quiet and Lies,” Said the Alleged Victim of Sex Abuse by a Priest By Carolina Pavón Sitio Andino February 15, 2012  [Translated into English by BishopAccountability.org. Click below to see original article in Spanish.] http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Argentina/news/2012_02_15_Pavon_Searching_for_JM_Spanish.pdf The civil case against the Archbishop of Mendoza, for concealment of information about an alleged abuse by a priest, continues.  The complainant gave his deposition. “If I had to say what has been my feeling about all this, it’s that the ways in which the ecclesiastical authorities (José María Arancibia and Sergio Buenanueva) operate, has been the same as the ways of other bishops in the world, where everything is silenced and they operate with lies,” Iván – the individual who denounced the Archbishop of Mendoza for damages and prejudice as a result of alleged sexual abuse, of which he alleges to be the victim – told Sitio Andino.   The civil case that ecclesiastical authorities of the province are facing for concealment of information about an alleged victim of sex abuse at the hands of a priest continues. According to what was described by Iván’s lawyer, Carlos Lombardi, in recent days the Archbishop was summoned to produce evidence. “There’ll be five days to produce evidence, if they have any, and then we’ll request a fixed period of time to make our assertions in the legal proceedings,” said Lombardi. Iván, for his part, recently gave a sort ofrecitation of what transpired and demanded a document that the Archbishop has refused to hand over, a document that was necessary for the trial. “The Archdiocese of Mendoza has in its possession a document that I presented and that they don’t want to return, sheltering themselves in the concordat that the Church signed with the de facto unconstitutional government of General Onganía,” said the young man. “In this very document is the description of the episodes of abuse, and I give names of other priests who live parallel lives, as well as names of youth that the abuser wanted to seduce, and who resided in Zona Este of Mendoza, and another at the parish of Santa Cruz de Las Heras.  Also [in the document is] a very serious incident committed by the abuser when he was a seminarian,” continued Iván. In a final remark, as he awaits the sentencing that, according to his lawyer, could be in the first half of the year, assuming the timeline is followed, the alleged victim gave this warning. “I’ll fight [while I] remain standing, and the Archdiocese of Mendoza should know that I’m going to continue seeking justice, and I’m going to use all the tools that our justice system makes available to me in order to defend myself.  I’m not going to rest until the facts are finally known, just as they happened and not as they’re disguised when they [Catholic officials of Mendoza] present them.”

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