"Sexually abused disabled residents" - there we are, our "moral leaders"

By CIARAN GILES

MADRID (AP) - A Spanish court is investigating allegations that members of a Catholic religious order sexually abused disabled residents of a facility run by the congregation, a diocese spokesman said Wednesday.

Jose Juan Jimenez, spokesman for the diocese of Cordoba in southern Spain, said the diocese has been cooperating fully with the investigation since being informed of it a month ago by court officials.

Jimenez told the AP that the case involved possible sexual abuse and mistreatment of patients at a home for the disabled run by the Franciscan Brothers of the White Cross in Cordoba.

The newspaper El Pais said two members of the order were brought before a Cordoba court Wednesday and named as suspects. The paper said they were ordered to stay away from the center.

Jimenez said he had no details as to what had happened at the court, and calls to the court and the religious order went unanswered.

The Cordoba Diocese issued a statement saying that, since hearing of the allegations, it has acted "with the welfare of the victims always in mind and taking the necessary measures to clarify responsibility, should there be any."

El Pais and other media outlets said that, in a separate case, a lay worker at the home has been imprisoned for several months on charges of sexually abusing a patient, while the religious order paid the victim's family euro5,000 ($6,343) in compensation.

Spain has been largely spared in the church sex abuse scandal that has rocked other European countries such as Germany and Ireland, but this would be this month's second abuse case involving a religious order in Spain.

On May 4, the Barefoot Carmelites order said it had reported to prosecutors allegations that one of its monks abused a minor some years ago in the eastern town of Burriana.

Spanish media said it was the first time a Catholic Church group in Spain has acted on an appeal that Pope Benedict XVI issued in March for church officials to report abuse cases to authorities. The Spanish Bishops Conference declined to comment on the case.