The Spanish priest who sexually abused children in Senegal for 25 years: ‘When he saw children, he couldn’t resist’
Victims talk to EL PAÍS about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Manel Sales Castellà, who worked as a missionary for years, even though ‘everyone knew’ he was preying on minors
Last Thursday, the Pious Schools of Catalonia released a statement saying that Manel Sales Castellà, who was one of their missionaries in Senegal, had abused “a significant number” of minors for 25 years and that the Piarist order had covered up the case “to protect the institution.”
However, according to the victims, the church knew about the abuses before 2005. “Everyone close to the priests knew that he was like that, that when he saw children he couldn’t resist. I think he was sick, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Philippe. “At that moment, we didn’t have the strength to say anything, a priest was very powerful, it was taboo to even talk about a priest. What’s more, everyone knew him in the region. When we went out to the villages, the children would approach him because it was very rare to see a white person who spoke Diola [the local language]. He took them and sat them on his lap or put them between his legs, which aroused him. He took off my cousin’s pants and underpants and forced himself on him, then gave him one of those shirts that Spain used to send for poor children.”
“Everyone knew what was happening, it was something that was talked about in hushed tones,” says a resident of Oussouye. “There were people who tried to denounce the abuse in 2005 and people from the church threatened them.”
https://english.elpais.com/international...esist.html
Victims talk to EL PAÍS about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Manel Sales Castellà, who worked as a missionary for years, even though ‘everyone knew’ he was preying on minors
Last Thursday, the Pious Schools of Catalonia released a statement saying that Manel Sales Castellà, who was one of their missionaries in Senegal, had abused “a significant number” of minors for 25 years and that the Piarist order had covered up the case “to protect the institution.”
However, according to the victims, the church knew about the abuses before 2005. “Everyone close to the priests knew that he was like that, that when he saw children he couldn’t resist. I think he was sick, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Philippe. “At that moment, we didn’t have the strength to say anything, a priest was very powerful, it was taboo to even talk about a priest. What’s more, everyone knew him in the region. When we went out to the villages, the children would approach him because it was very rare to see a white person who spoke Diola [the local language]. He took them and sat them on his lap or put them between his legs, which aroused him. He took off my cousin’s pants and underpants and forced himself on him, then gave him one of those shirts that Spain used to send for poor children.”
“Everyone knew what was happening, it was something that was talked about in hushed tones,” says a resident of Oussouye. “There were people who tried to denounce the abuse in 2005 and people from the church threatened them.”
https://english.elpais.com/international...esist.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
