Spain (Washington Insider Magazine) – The report published by the Spanish Episcopal Conference includes cases of abuses committed by more than 700 members of the church since the 1940s.
The Catholic Church has collected testimonies on sexual abuse committed in Spain by 728 priests and other religious against 927 minors since the 1940s.
82.62% of all victims are male, according to data published on Thursday by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) in the session “Protection of minors: we continue walking.”
The director of the Communication Office of the EEC, José Gabriel Vera, presented the report “To give light”, which includes in seven volumes the actions and protocols against abuses carried out by more than 200 ecclesiastical offices in three years of operation .
A “living” report
It is a “live” report because it is not closed, but rather it will incorporate all the information that becomes known. According to Vera, the offices are studying 191 testimonies “in order to complete the appropriate pastoral or judicial process with them.”
He specified that, in the canonical sphere, the age of majority is established at 18 years, while the civil age of consent to sexual relations is 16. Thus, some of the cases included in the report would not be considered as such in ordinary justice.
Of all the testimonies collected so far, 283 were from diocesan offices and 445 from religious congregations. Some of them made it possible to identify more than one victim: at least 927 vulnerable minors subjected to abuse since 1940.
According to the document, written between February and March of this year, more than 99% of the attackers are men, and more than 63% have already died.
Acknowledge the damage caused
Of the 728, a number that can be deduced from the testimonies, just over half (378) are clergy. In addition, there are 208 religious who are not ordained priests and 92 lay people.
The document indicates that the vast majority of the abuses were of a male homosexual nature (81.89%); and the aggression was almost always committed in schools, seminaries and boarding schools.
The study points out that more than 80% of the cases occurred in the 20th century; and 75%, before 1990. These data do not include an investigation commissioned by the EEC to the law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo nor that of the Ombudsman on this matter.
“We recognize the damage caused and because we want to help all the victims in their reception, in their accompaniment, in their healing and in their reparation”, Vera added, and so that these cases do not repeat themselves, the Church develops a work of formation for detection of abuse.
This article is authored by Deutsche Welle