The two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence for sexual abuse received by the priest Visarion Alexa outraged the sociologist Gelu Sunday. Psychologist Domnica Petrovai claims that there is a lot of complicity in society regarding harassment and sexual abuse.
The priest Visarion Alexa was convicted in the first instance. PHOTO: Mediafax/Eduard Vînătoru
The sentencing of priest Visarion Alexa to a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison term for sex abuse has sparked a public debate over the small sentences that accused sex offenders receive. This tolerant attitude of justice towards these types of behavior would encourage abuse.
Sociologist Gelu Duminică reacted on Facebook: “A sexual abuser with many victims in his history receives, from the Romanian judiciary, a two-year suspended prison sentence. I mean, yes, he’s an abuser, but he doesn’t need to go to jail. And yes, in this case, it is the priest Visarion Alexa, the one who used the confessional as a place to sexually and emotionally abuse parishioners”.
The sociologist concluded that in Romania sexual abuse is rarely punished:
“So stop wondering why sexual abuse is so tolerated in Romania! Because the one who does it rarely suffers anything…”.
Outraged people: ‘miserable’
The post had dozens of comments.
“Sad”Veronica wrote. “Miserable”Marinel commented. “And look, the two from SNSPA don’t have any emotion anymore. If they even had…”George opined.
“All sex abusers, regardless of occupation, get suspended in our justice system. Let’s not forget that politicians, who sexually abused 12-year-old children, were acquitted on the grounds that it was consensual sex. So what can we say, it has already become jurisprudence, given that the judges are mostly women“, commented Violeta.
“And do you think that stops many people from continuing to visit? Possibly sponsor him consistently“, commented Cristi.
Psychologist: “there is a lot of complicity in society regarding abuse”
Domnica Petrovai, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience in counseling and family psychotherapy and couple therapy, claims that such punishments minimize the significance of an abuse.
“There is an abuse of power there beyond sexual abuse, and the minimization of these two types of abuse is extremely serious. In this situation, where sanctions would be needed, they are somehow completely disproportionate. A child who is aggressive has a long list of sanctions, and for an adult who is in a position of power the sanctions are minor, insignificant. Two years of suspension means very little compared to the large number of victims“, is the opinion of the psychologist.
Asked why Romanian judges view sexual abuse with so much tolerance, Petrovai stated:
“It is an attitude that we find at the collective level. In these institutions, the church (in the case of the priest Alexa-nr) and the university (in the case of Alfred Bulai-nr), basically the abuses were known, but they were not addressed. There is a lot of complicity in society regarding abuse and I think there is a need for a conversation and a discussion rather at the level of civil society, by the way, about the recognition of abuses and the appropriate measures for such situations”.
The psychologist discussed the sanctions provided for in the new school regulations for students. “It’s outrageous that we have so many sanctions for children and no sanctions for adults in situations like this. And of course, here we are not only talking about sanctions, obviously, we are also talking about mental health services, i.e. putting the aggressors through a psychotherapeutic process”.
Two and a half years suspended for priest Visarion Alexa
Priest Visarion Alexa (48 years old) was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison for sexual assault, after in 2022 several women, former parishioners filed complaints on his behalf saying that they were raped or sexually abused by the priest, in his cell. The decision is not final.
The former priest was investigated for sexual assault and sent to court early last year.
Nine women filed complaints against him, accusing him of such acts. Although he was the subject of nine criminal cases for sexual assault and rape, only one of the cases made it to court. The other cases were closed because the complaints were filed after the statutory 90-day deadline had expired.
The priest never admitted the charges. He was given a two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence for sexual assault. The decision is not final and has already been challenged by the prosecutors of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the 6th District Court who are asking for a harsher punishment.
“He caressed her bottom, kissed her right ear”
Visarion Alexa was the parish priest of the “Pogorârea Sfântului Duh” Church in Militari, Bucharest. He was one of the most popular priests, being present on numerous radio and TV shows and among those who used social networks to answer young people on various topics of interest. The priest’s posts have hundreds of shares, reaching the TikTok network, which is mainly used by young people.
In September 2022, Visarion Alexa was detained by the police after being accused of sexual assault by a parishioner. The incident was reported on August 17, when the woman filed a complaint with the 20th Police Department of the General Police Directorate of the Municipality of Bucharest, claiming that the 46-year-old man had sexually assaulted her.
“Through coercion and taking advantage of the victim’s inability to defend herself, after making her confession and while they were in the summer altar in the courtyard of a church in Bucharest, he sexually assaulted the injured person by caressing her on her buttocks, kissed her on the right ear, put his hand on her breasts above and under her blouse, put his hand in her vagina and touched and caressed her, after which he grabbed her hands tightly the injured person, he directed them to the penis area and began to rub their penis on top of the priest’s robe, an act that meets the constitutive elements of the crime of sexual assault“, the prosecutors said at the time.
