A seminarian denounces a priest from the Seu d'Urgell for rape

BarcelonaThe priest pinned him against the mattress and raped him. The statement of a young seminarian before the Mossos d'Esquadra is, however, much rawer, with more details. The boy, 26 years old, filed a complaint, to which ARA has had access, for sexual assault on October 26 against a rector of the Urgell diocese. Hearing his account in person is even harder. The young man cannot help but burst into tears several times. “Sorry,” he apologizes for being unable to keep his composure, while he covers his face with his hands to try to hide the tears.

The young man, from a humble peasant family, emigrated to Spain moved by faith and the desire to be a priest. But what he never imagined was that the rector who helped him enter the Urgell diocesan seminary would sexually assault him, and later control and threaten him. Pope Francis approved a motu proprio (decree) in 2019, according to which the Church must act “without delay” regarding cases of sexual abuse, the bishop has a special responsibility to take charge of these cases, and covering them up is considered a crime comparable to abuse itself. Despite this, and even though the young seminarian repeatedly requested help from the bishopric of Urgell, neither the seminary rector, nor the bishop, nor even the office for receiving sexual abuse complaints of this bishopric did anything for him until he filed the complaint with the Mossos and subsequently left the seminary. The boy, devastated, left the center at the end of October.

Currently, the young man lives in hiding for fear of reprisals. Meanwhile, his alleged aggressor continues to be a rector at a church in La Seu d'Urgell and is participating in the organization of a youth meeting to be held in December, as advertised by the bishopric itself on its Instagram. Likewise, last Tuesday, he concelebrated the solemn mass of Sant Ermengol officiated at the cathedral of La Seu by the Bishop of Urgell and Co-Prince of Andorra himself, Monsignor Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat, despite the prelate having official knowledge for weeks of the serious accusations against the priest, and even having appointed a priest as an "investigating judge" to look into the facts. "I don't know what you are talking about. Speak to my lawyer if there is anything," were the brief words of the reported priest when this newspaper contacted him by phone on Friday. He then hung up abruptly.

The arrival in Catalonia

The young seminarian arrived in Spain at the end of the summer of 2024, when he was still 23 years old and against the wishes of a good part of his family, with whom he has practically had no relationship since then. He ended up at the Sagrat Cor i Nostra Senyora del Roser major seminary, which is located in Olías del Rey, in Toledo. There he studied for one academic year, but, as he relates, it was impossible to live there because a person at the seminary repeatedly made sexual insinuations to him. For this reason, when he met a priest who was not from the seminary, he asked him for help. The priest, 54 years old and pastor of a parish in the Noguera region, offered to take him in at his rectory and try to find another seminary so he could continue his studies. "With me, you will always have a plate of food whenever you need it," he assured him, according to the young seminarian's account, which is how he arrived in Catalonia on July 15 of last year.

The next day, according to what the boy explains, the priest had to go to Barcelona to take care of some errands, and he decided to accompany him. They stayed the night in the capital, in a private apartment that the young man cannot specify who it belonged to. At night, before going to sleep, they went for some drinks and the priest took him to a gay bar, The Moon, located on Carrer Villarroel, according to the complaint filed with the Mossos. When they returned to the apartment, they continued drinking beers and, once they went to sleep, the alleged sexual assault took place during the early hours of July 17. They shared a bed, because there was no other in the apartment, the complaint also details.

“I am not used to drinking alcohol in these amounts, I was in a state of total physical vulnerability,” says the young seminarian, who was left completely paralyzed when, according to his account, the priest held him down by force and penetrated him. “I felt terror and helplessness,” he adds. And he continues explaining that he had just left the religious community in Toledo, he had almost no money, he barely knew anyone in Spain, and his residence permit was about to expire. So, in large part, he depended on that priest to have a place to live and to find another seminary to continue his studies and be able to renew his papers.

After the assault, the priest warned him that he "had very powerful friends who could destroy his life in five minutes,” according to the complaint. In other words, for his own good, he had to keep the law of silence.

In the following weeks, the young man tried to avoid the priest. "If he was at home, I would go out into the street. And at night I would lock myself in my bedroom with a latch". Until November 3rd, when he entered the Diocesan Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, in La Seu d’Urgell, thanks to the priest's intercession. And also thanks to him, he began the procedures to renew his residence permit. For this reason, he signed an authorization in favor of a lawyer friend of the priest. “Remember one thing: do things right, because just as I put you in [the seminary], I will take you out,” claims the boy, who says the priest repeated this to him over and over again. He also states that he constantly controlled him with WhatsApp calls and messages: he wanted to know at all times who he was with and what he was doing.

Once he resumed his studies, the young man spent a large part of the week, from Monday to Friday, at the Interdiocesan Seminary of Catalonia, in Barcelona, because that is currently where most of the seminarists from the Principality attend classes. On the other hand, on weekends he had to return to the rectory in the Noguera region, because the Bishop of Urgell had established that he had to offer his pastoral help in that municipality, according to the boy's account.

Last January, however, the young seminarist reached his breaking point, he admits himself: he requested a change of parish from the then rector of the Urgell seminary, Father Gabriel Casanovas. The reasons he argued were that the priest who had found him the seminary was threatening him, receiving visits from men at the rectory and sleeping with them in the bedroom, and leaving the country every other day, which forced him to take charge of the parish alone. At that time, he did not mention the sexual assault, but his complaint had an immediate effect: Father Casanovas transferred him to the parish of Bellver de Cerdanya, of which he himself was the rector.

Threats and coercion

"I assure you that you will not be a priest. What goes around, comes around. Ungrateful!", his alleged aggressor shouted at him over the phone, furious, when he found out that he had requested a change of parish, according to the seminarian. And as if that were not enough, a few weeks later he received a resolution from the Government Sub-delegation in Toledo that literally stated that the renewal of his residence permit had been interrupted because he himself had requested the "withdrawal" of the process. A request that, he assures, he logically had not made, because that meant ending up without papers.

The boy then fell into a depression and a constant state of anxiety, as he explains. In addition to having to deal with all the procedures to obtain a residence permit again, which he obtained thanks to the extraordinary regularization of foreigners that the Spanish government carried out this year. He also insistently asked for psychological help at the seminary, but the only thing they offered him was to talk to a nun or another priest, he laments.

Once he managed to regularize his situation, the young seminarian met on August 31st with the Bishop of Urgell in his episcopal office and explained everything to him: the threats, the coercion, and also the sexual assault by the priest. But to his surprise, he declares, the bishop did not clarify to him what he would do with all of this. And the worst of all is that during the following weeks he also had no evidence that he had done anything. And this, the inaction and the silence, sank him even further.

On October 5, the young man sent a burofax to the office for the reception of reports and complaints of sexual abuse of the Diocese of Urgell, recounting the assault and requesting that the bishopric activate the protection and preliminary investigation protocol provided by the Church, and adopt protection measures to avoid reprisals against him. The newspaper ARA has had access to the document, which was received the following day at the bishopric of Urgell, according to the delivery receipt issued by Correos. However, the director of this office, the Reverend David Codina Pérez, took eleven days to reply by email. In his email of October 17, which ARA has also been able to read, the reverend states verbatim: “It is the first time that this office director has knowledge of the facts described and I convey to you that I will inform personally and as soon as possible the Ordinary of the Diocese of Urgell, His Excellency and Most Reverend Monsignor Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat, about the content of your communication, so that he may take the measures he deems appropriate, always according to the applicable civil and canon law”. He also informed him that he could "exercise his civil rights before the state authorities".

Despite this, the seminarian did not receive any news that the bishopric had taken any action. So he also sent a certified letter to the apostolic nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Piero Pioppo, and another to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, which have been delivered, without any result so far. And recently he has sent another one to the Dicastery for Bishops. Sources from the nunciature stated to this newspaper on Friday: "We will not provide any information about this".

The response from the bishopric

Desolate in the face of the lack of response, on October 29th, the young man decided to leave the seminary and communicated this in writing to his current rector, Father Antoni Elvira, and to the Bishop of Urgell. The reasons he set out in the text were “the abuse and threats” from the priest and “the lack of support from the Church”. The next day, around four in the afternoon, he effectively left the center. An hour later, when he was officially no longer a seminarian, he received an email from Father Codina, which said: “The Bishop has appointed me as investigating judge delegate for the preliminary investigation of the facts that you describe in your communication of October 5, 2026, regarding the priest incardinated in this diocese of Urgell whom you fully identified on October 17th through a communication to the Bishop of Urgell”. Likewise, he proposed holding a meeting to "take his statement". The meeting between the priest and the young man is scheduled for this Monday.

"Upon receiving the complaint, the mandatory canonical investigation into the reported facts was immediately opened. Simultaneously, the complainant was encouraged to exercise their rights and to turn to the public authorities of the State, offering them comprehensive support throughout the process", stated sources from the bishopric when this newspaper contacted the ecclesiastical authority on Friday. They do not specify, however, what support they offered the boy, nor that they informed him of the appointment of an investigating judge when the young man had already resigned from continuing at the seminary due to the lack of help. Furthermore, despite the opening of the canonical investigation, the Bishop of Urgell appeared in public with the accused priest on November 3rd during the solemn mass of Saint Ermengol, which he officiated at the Cathedral of Santa Maria d'Urgell and which the alleged aggressor also concelebrated.

In its response to ARA, the bishopric also adds: "The Diocese of Urgell reaffirms its firm and inviolable commitment to continue working to ensure that all its spaces are safe environments". Nevertheless, the reported priest continues to be the rector of a church in La Seu d'Urgell, and during these weeks he is participating in the organization of a youth gathering that will be held in December, as advertised by the bishopric itself on its social networks.

In contrast, the young man who broke with his family to become a priest now lives in fear and in hiding. "After the bishop's silence, I saw clearly that I did not want to be a priest in Urgell, nor continue in the seminary. In fact, now I feel uncomfortable and insecure around priests," he states. Perhaps he has lost his faith? "I will always be a Christian and I will continue to believe in God, because the evil of the world is not the work of God, but of the men to whom he gave freedom," he replies.