The priest Ricardo Yesquén Paiva, aged 59, one of the two clerics of the Diocese of Chiclayo accused of abusing minors in the case involving Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, since his time as bishop of that diocese, has died in Ferreñafe, Peru. Yesquén dies without any canonical or civil investigation having been opened against him in the six years since the first complaint was filed with Prevost himself in 2020.
The news of his death was reported this Tuesday by local media in Ferreñafe, the town where diocesan records listed him as parochial vicar of the parish of Santa Lucía. The Diocese of Chiclayo has not issued an official statement so far.
According to case documentation accessed by InfoVaticana, the incidents attributed to Yesquén date back to 2006, when the priest, then 39 years old, allegedly imposed libidinous kisses on a 10-year-old girl at the parish house in La Victoria (Chiclayo), in episodes that reportedly repeated for at least a year. The complainant is Ana María Quispe, who years later made her story public after realizing that her complaints to the Church produced no effect.
In that same parish house, priest Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzales, known as “Padre Lute,” lived with Yesquén; he was accused by the same victims of extremely serious acts: the testimonies describe the transfer of 9- and 11-year-old girls, under the pretext of supposed missionary activities, to an isolated dwelling in the mountains of Ferreñafe, six hours from their homes, where the priest spent the night alone with them in a single bed and performed sexual rubbing. As former apostolic administrator Guillermo Cornejo publicly acknowledged, Vásquez admitted the facts.
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