Historic day for victims of clerical pedophilia. For Juan, Ana, Teresa, Francisco. Javier, Laura, Amor, Patricia… survivors of child abuse in the Catholic Church and who attended this morning, as guests, the presentation of the Ombudsman’s report to the plenary session of Congress. The victims have entered the Congress, they must still do so in another plenary session, that of the Episcopal Conference.
“We are committed to listening to his word and his voice, but without limiting ourselves to that,” opened his intervention Ángel Gabilondo, who launched a public petition to politicians, the government and the Church. “I consider it essential that, for the good of the victims, the Church and the State make common commitments.”
“Victims expect a concrete response to their situation and that it not be delayed,” Gabilondo said in his speech, in which he stressed that “reparation for victims must come before any other ideological or belief differences” . And, he stressed, “what happened was possible thanks to the silence of those who could have done more to prevent it.”
A year and a half after the Lower House entrusted it to him, the Mediator issued a report which, according to him, “responds to what the victims are demanding: to be taken care of, listened to and reciprocated”. “Let this not be postponed,” he shouted, insisting that “our country is among the last to have done so.” “Time is decisive,” he stressed.
After thanking the media for their work, without which – he assured – this work “would have been much more difficult”, Gabilondo reviewed some of the conclusions of the report: the Victim Care Unit was able to do evidence of “consistency and knowledge” on a total of 674 victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Among them, the Ombudsman indicated that 563 were men, or 84.19%, and 110 were women, or 15.61%. The vast majority were between 30 and 75 years old at the time of the interview, with the largest age group being between 50 and 65 years old, with 186 victims, or 39%. It is a “living report” since after the publication of the report, the testimonies continued to arrive.
The testimonies collected “spoke of cognitive damage, spiritual damage, difficulties in emotional and sexual life and in the relationship with one’s own children, of the repercussions that this had on the rest of the family, which by extension often also suffered. their whole life for this. Even job expectations have been negatively conditioned in many cases.
The Church’s response
“One party responds, and the other party responds.” This is how the Mediator spoke of the “disparate response” of the Church. “There was a tendency to minimize the cases, the bad apples…. From minimization, we moved to a progressive recognition of the facts and a better understanding of the victims, even if there is still a lot to do,” he pointed out. Another thing is “victims’ perceptions” regarding the actions of the Church. They reported that “the responses were insufficient, even dilatory”. “Victims are still not part of the canonical criminal procedure. I hope this will be done,” denounced Gabilondo, while recognizing that there has been progress. Of course, “still insufficient”.
“For years there has been a desire to conceal or protect the aggressors,” condemned Gabilondo, citing as “examples of bad practices” the numerous cases of transfers from parishes or to other countries of religious accused of sexual abuse, which in these new destinations They continued to commit these crimes. The Ombudsman also spoke of the “responsibility” of other powers, which also turned a blind eye for years.
Speaking about the controversial investigation commissioned from GAD3 and which, extrapolating the data, spoke of 440,000 possible victims of clerical pedophilia, Gabilondo defended its importance “to frame the dimensions of the problem and establish the incidence of sexual abuse in n any area of Spanish society, in addition to religious society.
The sampling was carried out on a base of 8,013 people, revealing that 11.7% of those questioned claim to have suffered sexual abuse before the age of 18 and that 1.13% claim that this abuse occurred in a religious framework. Extrapolating this percentage would mean that there are more than 400,000 victims of Church-related abuse in Spain and 240,000 have been attacked by priests or consecrated persons. 3.36% of those questioned declared that the abuse suffered occurred in the family environment.
Finally, Gabilondo highlighted some of the 24 recommendations contained in the report, addressed “to the Legislative, to the Executive, to all public authorities, to the Church and to Spanish society itself”, with the main objective “to to provide a response to a situation of suffering and solitude which, for years, remained in one way or another covered by an unjust silence.
“I consider it essential that, for the good of the victims, the Church and the State make common commitments,” concluded the Mediator, highlighting some of the proposals included in the report: among them, holding ‘a public act of recognition and symbolic reparation to the victims “due to the prolonged period of inattention and inactivity, particularly between 1970 and 2020”. Also, “the creation of a state fund for the payment of compensation in favor of victims and that a special administrative body – created for the occasion – be the one which establishes a procedure of recognition and reparation for victims sexual assault or abuse of children. “within the framework of the Catholic Church. » Parallel to this, the opening of ecclesiastical archives and the reform of the limitation period for pedophilia crimes.
Gabilondo ended his speech with a call to lawmakers: “The silence is over. Its failure is not simply due to this advisory commission, it is due to the efforts of so many victims, who deserve and need a response. Much will depend, to a large extent, on your answer, ladies and gentlemen. »
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