The Archbishop of Granada has issued a communiqué stating that he has carried out an immediate suspension of a deacon who has been accused of raping a youth. The suspension covers carrying out any form of ministry.

The Number Six Law Court in Granada has taken the accusation seriously enough to order an investigation into the allegations of ‘continual sexual abuse during at least five years by the deacon, whilst working as a religious teacher.’ The plaintiff, is a Brazilian lad who was in church care from the age of 13 until he reached 18; i.e., now.

The 61-year-old churchman belongs to the diocese of Granada and during the last school year worked as a religion teacher in three state secondary schools; two in the metropolis and one in a nearby town. The deacon set up a charity organisation in 1987, based in Pulianas to help Brazilian children living on the streets in a complete state of poverty.

In the Archbishop’s press communiqué he took pains to point out that the accused is neither a priest nor a permanent deacon. He said that he would be collaborating fully with the police and judicial authorities to clarify the situation because ‘the Church desires that Truth and Justice prevail.’

Finally, a deacon in an ecclesiastical sense is the first step that a married person can take towards ordination. The accused became a deacon in Madrid in 1971 but never applied for priesthood.

A ‘permanent deacon’ is the next in order below the church rank of priest, whereas a ‘transitional deacon’ is the last stage of training before ordination as a priest. Permanent deacons assist the priest during Mass, but can also carry out certain parts of it himself.

What the Archbishop is at pains to point out is that owing to the elapse between the man becoming a deacon in 1971 and now, the man was in a state of limbo, having neither become a priest nor receiving the order of permanent deacon.

(News: Metropolitan Granada, Granada, Andalucia)