445 victims gave testimony during the first year of the investigation of sexual abuse of the Catholic Church in Spain

SPAIN’s Ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, says an independent commission set up a year ago to investigate historical sexual abuse by the Catholic Church has collected statements from 445 victims.

Congress voted on March 10, 2022, to open the first official investigation into the extent of sexual abuse committed by priests and church officials.

The government acted after allegations of abuse involving more than 1,200 victims were published in the The country newspaper.

Testimony is still being collected and a report will be submitted to Congress later this year.

Gabilondo said he had written to the country’s 70 Catholic dioceses asking for information and their cooperation, but admitted the response so far has been minimal.

However, he remained hopeful and said: “Everything is in a process that allows me to believe that the Church will collaborate, but it must be shown that now is the time for the facts to come to light.”

“In all honesty, the Congress and Spanish society will know what the level of collaboration of the Catholic Church has been,” Gabilondo insisted.

He added that he would make clear the number of bishops who have and have not helped the investigation.

A Madrid-based law firm is conducting a parallel investigation on behalf of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, which for years rejected the idea of ​​taking a comprehensive approach to investigating sexual abuse.

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