“An abuser does not deserve the altar; he deserves prison,” and “Stained cassocks, hidden truths” were among the slogans written on placards by alumnae of the Santa Rosa de Lima School, who gathered to demand justice for a nun from the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Cross. The nun has accused Father Noel Sebastián D’Mello of raping her in 2020. (He is presumed innocent until his culpability is established by judicial authority. Art. 13, CNPP)
“Although her name remains anonymous, she wants—and needs—solutions, because there has been no follow-up on her case; the Church simply transferred him to a different parish. She has been harassed; her email accounts were even breached in an attempt to find evidence suggesting she might have somehow provoked the situation—rather than taking action against the aggressor,” stated Laura Franco Sánchez, the mother of one of the alumnae from the religious school.
Standing outside the Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico Parish in Ejido Matamoros—where Noel Sebastián D’Mello is reportedly serving as a vicar—the mother cited statements the nun had given to the weekly publication *ZETA* last March, in which she recounted the details of the rape she suffered at the hands of the priest. “Anyone with an ounce of common sense reads this interview and asks: ‘What is happening with justice? What is happening with justice?’” she remarked.
