Costa Rican bishop says accused priest who fled country should return

Published: 2004-06-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Costa Rican priest accused in his home country of child sex abuse should return to face the situation, said his bishop. Bishop Angel San Casimiro of Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica, said he does not know where Father Enrique Vasquez is and denied that he helped the priest flee Costa Rica in 1998. "I never hindered any investigation," Bishop San Casimiro told Catholic News Service June 24 while visiting Washington. He added that Costa Rican prosecutor Alba Campos said he helped Father Vasquez flee. Father Vasquez was mentioned in a June 20 article in the Dallas Morning News. The paper said sex abuse accusations were made against the priest in Costa Rica in 1998 but he had been allowed to work in dioceses in the United States and Honduras. He has always managed, according to the paper, to flee before civil authorities could take action against him.

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