As Spanish victims are forced to wait for justice, Portugal publishes report on abuses in the Catholic Church

A DEVASTATING report published this week has revealed that at least 4,815 children have been sexually abused by members of the Catholic Church in Portugal in the last 70 years.

The document was released by an independent commission tasked with investigating the allegations. The numbers were described by its president, child psychologist Pedro Strecht, as “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The Church itself commissioned the investigation. The president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, José Ornelas, bishop of Leiria-Fátima, said Monday that the report reveals a “tragic reality” and “asked all the victims for forgiveness.”

The process in Portugal contrasts with the way the issue is being dealt with in neighboring Spain, where the Church has traditionally denied any such probes are necessary and stated that there were only ‘isolated cases’ of abuse.

Strecht said the aim of the investigation was to “give voice to the silence” of the victims, and paid tribute to those who had contacted his staff to provide testimony.

Some 564 people recounted their experiences, explaining how they were abused by other officials’ priests, the BBC reported.

This testimony included information about how other minors had been abused, which explains why the final victim count runs into the thousands.

Strecht added that most of the perpetrators were priests (77%), while 57% of the victims were men, Reuters reported.

The report found that the abuse took place in priests’ houses, churches, Catholic schools and confessionals, among other places. Most of the children involved were between the ages of 10 and 14, with the youngest case found being just two years old at the time of the abuse.

newspaper investigation

Meanwhile, in Spain, it has fallen to the media, particularly the Spanish newspaper El País, to lead the way when it comes to investigating abuses in the Catholic Church.

In 2018, the newspaper launched a major pedophilia investigation and created a database of cases. There are no official figures on the subject in Spain.

According to the findings of El País, 910 Church figures have been accused of abuses and 1,741 victims have been documented.

Between 2018 and 2021, the newspaper published accounts of 146 cases; in the last year it has discovered 500 more; and since 1985, the Church itself, the courts and other media have reported another 260 cases.

The latest report covered abuse ranging from groping through clothing to repeated rape, with most victims between the ages of 10 and 14, but the full range is 4 to 17. Almost all cases involve victims masculine.

The country has delivered various reports, which contains accusations against 500 clergy, before the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Vatican and the Ombudsman. The Church’s response has been silent.

What’s more, the newspaper questioned 141 orders and dioceses directly about the allegations at the end of 2022, but received hardly any responses.

In fact, the newspaper reported having access to a circular sent in response to their queries by the new secretary general of the Episcopal Conference, César García Magán. In it, he advised the bishops to collaborate in a very limited way with the investigation.

Bishops Audit

A year ago, the bishops of Spain commissioned an audit of the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo with the aim of ‘getting to the bottom’ of the issue of pedophilia in the Church.

A spokesperson told El País that so far just over 100 victims have been interviewed, despite the almost 2,000 victims found by the newspaper.

There is no confirmation as of yet when the report will be published, but it is expected to arrive before June of this year.

Meanwhile, the lower house of the Spanish parliament, the Congress of Deputies, requested in March last year that the ombudsman conducts a parallel investigation. So far 400 interviews have been conducted for that investigation, but there is also no word on when the final report will be completed.

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