First conviction for pedophilia against a monk from Montserrat. The monk of Montserrat Abbey ordained Brother Gabriel, who even became vice-rector of the Sanctuary, accepted two years in prison on Monday for having sexually abused a 17-year-old minor. The conviction will not involve his entry into prison because it results from an agreement with the prosecution.
The agreement was revealed this Monday by the Montserrat Monastery in a press release. The Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office had not informed last week that the trial would take place, as is the case for the rest of the Barcelona court hearings. The criminal case took place alongside a restorative justice process to repair the harm caused to the victim in which the attacker asked the young man for forgiveness and promoted his “emotional compensation”, the sentence underlines.
The victim came into contact with Montserrat Abbey through Montserrat youth meetings, coordinated by the monk. Over the years, their relationship grew closer and the religious became a “personal reference and spiritual guide” for the young man, who shared his problems with him.
In May 2019, the monk invited the minor (they were then 39 and 17 years old respectively) to spend the weekend at the monastery. It was then that the confessed attacker took the opportunity to go to the cell where the young man was and share a bottle of cava with him to take advantage of his semi-drunk state and carry out the abuse.
The religious man offered the teenager to share the bottle even though the young man replied that he had practically never drunk alcohol and had never gotten drunk. The victim, underlines the sentence, was not able to verbalize her refusal because she had been drinking, due to the age difference, the environment in which she found herself and the pedophile’s “ascendancy” over her. “The monk consciously took advantage of all this,” the resolution adds.
In its press release, the abbey “strongly condemned all types of abuse, particularly against minors”, and indicated that it would pay compensation of 20,000 euros to the victim for the lack of assets of the pedophile monk. Once the criminal procedure has been completed, the canonical procedure will now begin.
Montserrat, an emblematic and very symbolic religious space of Catalonia even beyond believers, has also been involved in cases of pedophilia within the Catholic Church. That of this monk was the first to be judged, since of the two other accused religious, one died and in the second case the abuses are prescribed.
