Manel Sales Castellà, Piarist and missionary, abused for decades "a significant" amount of minor students of the Piarists in Senegal. This has been denounced in a letter by the Commission for the Defense of Sexually Abused Minors in the Church of Senegal and the provincial of the Escola Pia de Catalunya, Jordi Vila. The organization wanted to publicly apologize for events that would have taken place 25 years ago and has launched various actions to find possible victims and repair the damage.
The events reported would have taken place in the Casamance region between 1980 and 2005, and some students and residents of the area were aware of them. Sales "took advantage of his status as a missionary" as well as the "authority he had over minors", explains the congregation. Abuses that were also silenced by the social situation, which makes it difficult to make a public complaint. There was another obstacle: homosexuality is punishable by prison in Senegal.
After the denunciation of a group of Catalans linked to the country, Sales was removed from his activities with minors in 2005. He underwent psychiatric treatment, but remained within the order and continued to play a role " active" in the institution as rector, provincial secretary and member of the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese of Barcelona, despite the complaint the facts imputed to him were known.
In 2018, after a complaint from a French citizen, the congregation asked the accused for an explanation, who acknowledged the facts. The congregation recognizes the "mistake" of not having properly attended to the people who complained, and attributes it to the desire to "protect" the institution. The religious authorities in Rome were then informed to expel Sales from the priesthood, which happened a year later, in 2019.
At that time, the congregation was already trying to identify possible victims, but decided not to insist "out of respect". With the letter made public this Thursday, they assume the abuses and express their "absolute indignation, rejection and revulsion" for abuses that "do not represent the congregation". And they assure that they have brought the case to the attention of the Prosecutor's Office and ecclesiastical authorities.
They apologize to the victims, including those who were not heard when they reported the abuse. In the same way, they apologize to those people who "trusted in the missionary work" and announce that they have created an independent commission of experts to attend to the victims and their families.
The Commission for the Defense of Sexually Abused Minors in the Church in Senegal provides an email (delmas@oussouye.org) through which information relating to the case can be shared. And there is also a channel for any victim to report if they have suffered abuse by emailing protecciondelmenor@escolapia.cat.
