Runaway Priests
Hiding in Plain Sight

Rev. Enrique Vásquez
Salesian Case Study #4

Dallas Morning News
June 20, 2004

[See a list of articles in the series.]

There is a Costa Rican warrant for his arrest in an abuse case opened by prosecutors in 1998.

Currently

Interpol is looking for him. He vanished in March from the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

History

Tegucigalpa Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez, one of the world's most prominent Salesians, put Father Vásquez to work in two parishes last year while the priest was on the run. The priest had fled Costa Rica shortly after the case began six years ago, then worked in two U.S. archdioceses – New York and Hartford – before leaving for a clergy treatment center near Guadalajara, Mexico. Church officials say they don't know where he is.

Rodríquez

The Priest Says

Father Vásquez, who is not a Salesian, could not be located for comment. The leader of his home diocese in Costa Rica, Ciudad Quesada Bishop Angel San Casimiro, said the priest had admitted abusing the former altar boy named in the criminal case.

San Casimiro

The Salesians Say

Cardinal Rodríguez did not respond to requests for comment. One of his top aides initially denied that Father Vásquez had worked in the Tegucigalpa Archdiocese, then said he might have.