P. Félix Pariona Huacre

Accused in May 2017 of inappropriately touching and raping a girl when she was ages 15-17, at San Cristóbal de Huamanga Seminary in Ayacucho. Pariona was the seminary’s formation director. The alleged abuse was reported to the prosecutor’s office. Pariona was allowed to continue active ministry. The case was closed in July 2017, reopened, then again closed in November 2017. Archbishop Salvador Piñeiro García Calderón issued a statement defending the priest. In May 2018 a former seminarian stated that he had lied to the prosecutor’s office to cover for Pariona, after Pariona offered him a better paying job and housing for his cooperation. The former seminarian said he knew about the sexual assault of the girl by Pariona, and that Pariona sexually harassed him after his testimony. In April 2018 he filed a complaint against Pariona with the National Superintendency of Labor Inspection. Pariona was acquitted in 2019 in the case of the abuse of the girl. In November 2020, the Ayacucho Superior Court annulled Pariona’s acquittal and ordered a new trial to be conducted by a different panel of judges (“ordenó un nuevo juicio oral a cargo de otro colegiado“).  Eighteen months later, it appears that the new trial still hadn’t started; in a May 2022 article, Diario Correa reported that Pariona’s acquittal had been overturned due to serious irregularities (“serias irregularidades”) in the first trial and that he would be tried again. The victim’s lawyer said that judges in both the first and second instances had refused to consider the testimony by the victim in the Gesell chamber. In August 2026 the Archdiocese posted a birthday greeting to Pariona on Facebook, stating “today, August 17th, we greet our brother and ask the Lord to grant him health, wisdom, and much joy to continue guiding his community with love. May he remain a priest according to his heart’s desire.”