Image by Kai Pilger.

Ana Maria was a nine-year-old girl from a little town called Chiclayo, Peru in 2007 when the Catholic Church robbed her of her childhood. She didn’t even see it coming. A beloved friar known popularly as Father Lute at the church she was raised in had arranged to accompany her on a mission to another parish. Her parents and teachers told her this was a great honor, and all the other little girls and boys were jealous. She would get to stay overnight in a different town at a different parish with the full and undivided attention of one of the most beloved and well-respected men in her community. She couldn’t possibly say no even if she wanted to.

But the moment that Ana Maria and Father Lute were alone in a faraway place, things very rapidly became strange and frightening. The parish facilities they were staying at only had one bed and Father Lute insisted that they share it. Ana Maria felt deeply uncomfortable with this arrangement but what could she do? How could she say no? She had trouble sleeping next to this grown man who everyone she knew held in such high regard but before she could drift off, he was all over her, hugging her, kissing her, caressing her, putting his great big hands all over her tiny defenseless body. This time Ana Maria tried to say no, she tried over and over again, but the beloved Father Lute didn’t care. It was like the man had transformed into an insatiable beast in that bed the moment the lights were off.

Ana Maria wanted to believe that it was all just a bad dream, but it wasn’t, and it kept happening. Father Lute arranged for more overnight visits to more faraway parishes for the two of them and they always seemed to have only one bed to share. Sometimes another local friar came too. Ana Maria didn’t know what to do. She felt like dying but everyone around her just kept reminding her of what a great honor it was to be the focus of such interest from such a distinguished man of the cloth, so she kept quiet while Father Lute kept his hands all over her childhood. Eventually, finally, the missions ended but the nightmares didn’t. No bed that Ana Maria slept in felt safe. Years went by before she finally broke her silence. She told her two sisters about the strange trips with Father Lute and to her shock her sisters confessed that they too had been preyed upon by the same man of God in the exact same fashion, all between the tender ages of 10 and 14.

Ana Maria was furious. This man who the community had trusted completely with its children was a monster and he needed to be........

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