Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash
CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal Robert Prevost, who has been the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops since January 2023, failed to take appropriate canonical investigation steps when he was Bishop of a Peruvian diocese after three women alleged abuse against two priests in his diocese when they were between the ages of 10-14, a new editorial by The New Daily Compass’ editor-in-chief recently argued.
In the September 16 editorial in Italian publication The New Daily Compass, editor-in-chief Riccardo Cascioli alleged that the new bishop of the diocese, which was previously overseen by Cardinal Prevost, now appears to be covering up the original cover-up.
Cascioli is the editor-in-chief of The New Daily Compass, Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, and La Brújula Cotidiana.
“What is certain is that since the first report in 2020 there has been no move by Prevost to clarify the substance of the allegations”, Cascioli wrote in the editorial, adding, “and the restrictions due to the pandemic certainly do not justify inaction.” The allegations were first reported to Prevost in 2020, according to the report; canon law requires a bishop to open an investigation after a credible allegation of abuse is made.
“And even after the formal complaint in April 2022 nothing concrete has really been done, as the diocese has still not been able to prove that a canonical investigation has been initiated and that the three alleged victims have been deposed,” he added.
Cardinal Prevost, of the Order of St. Augustine, served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, from November 2015 until January 2023, according to the Vatican Press website. He was born in 1955 in Chicago and ordained a priest in 1982. Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in January 2023 and proclaimed him a cardinal in September 2023.
Cardinal Prevost’s role in the Dicastery enables him to select bishops.
Abuse allegations emerge in Cardinal Prevost’s former diocese
The unresolved investigation Cascioli reported on involves two priests from the Diocese of Chiclayo. Cascioli’s article states that The Daily Compass possesses sworn testimonies of three plaintiffs, who are sisters. The women allege that two priests, Fr. Eleuterio Vàsquez-Gonzales and Fr. Ricardo Yesquen, abused them between 2006 and 2010, when they were between the ages of 10 and 14. The allegations were made against the priests while Cardinal Prevost was bishop of the Diocese.
According to Cascioli, in 2020, one of the sisters, Ana Maria Quispe Diaz, reported the alleged actions of Fr. Vàsquez-Gonzales,– who is also referred to as “Fr. Lute,” and Fr. Yesquen, over the telephone to then-Bishop of Chiclayo, Bishop Prevost.
“Restrictions due to the pandemic prevented a meeting in person between the women and Prevost, which finally took place on 5 April 2022 in the episcopal see of Chiclayo, with all three sisters present,” Cascioli continued.
According to the testimonies, then-Bishop Prevost directed the three sisters to file a complaint with local police, saying “‘there was no way for the Church to investigate and only civil investigations could be used by the Church to sanction’ any perpetrators.” Then-Bishop Prevost also directed the three women to a “listening center” he had organized.
However, the complaint with police could not proceed because Peru limited such crimes’ statute of limitation to four years, according to Cascioli.
Cascioli also pointed out that, contrary to the claim reportedly belonging to then-Bishop Prevost, “canonical investigations are independent of civil ones,” meaning the Church could have made its own investigation.
Alleged victims and diocese at odds over Church’s handling of investigation
Diaz, “exasperated by the diocese’s silence,” went public about the story on social media, according to Cascioli. She posted on Facebook in November 2023 with claims to have discovered seven new victims.
In December 2023, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese Bishop Guillermo Cornejo Monzón, reopened the investigation into the allegations, according to the Diocese.
The alleged victims disputed that there was an original opening of the investigation before December 2023. “The only time they [the women] were able to tell their story before an investigator officially appointed by the diocese was” after this point, Cascioli wrote.
In February 2024, Pope Francis appointed Augustinian Msgr. Edinson Farfán Córdova as the new Bishop of Chiclayo, a fellow Augustinian whom Cascioli calls a “personal friend” of Cardinal Prevost. “Not only that, in Chuquibambilla Monsignor Farfán was accused of covering up the abuse of another Augustinian priest, Don Juan Carlos Olaya,” alleged Cascioli.
On September 10, 2024, the Diocese of Chiclayo issued a statement which, according to Cascioli, indicated that “the bishop had immediately ‘adopted precautionary measures’, launching ‘preliminary investigations’ and removed Father Lute with ‘disqualification from exercising the priestly ministry’.”
The following day the three alleged abuse victims contended this statement with photos made public in Cascioli’s report of Fr. Lute celebrating Masses between March and April 2023.
As to the other priest accused of abuse, Cascioli reported that in recent years, Fr. Yesquen has “suffered from senile dementia and had already been in a nursing home for some time.” According to the response the alleged victims made to the Diocese, no action was taken against Fr. Yesquen.
The September 2024 statement from the Diocese of Chiclayo “also claims that all material concerning the diocesan investigation was sent to Rome to the competent office of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which would subsequently file the case,” Cascioli wrote.
The three women contested this part of the Diocesan statement as well, and, according to Cascioli, they “claim that they were never summoned for testimony by any ‘investigator’ and that there is no trace of this investigation or of any examination by the Vatican Dicastery.”
According to Cascioli, the documents related to the investigation, which the Diocese claimed to have submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “are still awaiting examination” by the Vatican office.
Cascioli also noted that Bishop Farfán Córdova has refused to meet canon lawyer Monsignor Ricardo Coronado Arrascu, who was representing the three women as of May 2024. Moreover, Bishop Farfán Córdova “then… [rejected] the legitimacy of his appointment… so that he could be denied access to the documents relating to the investigation.”
“Not only that, a veritable concentric attack was launched against Coronado: on 24 August, the Peruvian Episcopal Conference announced that Monsignor Coronado could no longer practice as a canonist in Peru and therefore could not continue to defend his current clients,” Cascioli wrote.
On August 29, the bishop of Msgr. Coronado’s original diocese informed Msgr. Coronado that a charge had been filed against him with the Dicastery of the Clergy at the Vatican allegeding an “unspecified crime,” according to Cascioli.
