“Anyone who wants economic relief will get it. » The spokesperson for the Episcopal Conference, César García Magán, was categorical in his responses to the press conference that followed the Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Episcopate, a conclave held the same week during in which the victims of abuse presented their child protection awards, and in which the mediator, Ángel Gabilondo, presented his anti-pedophilia report before the plenary session of Congress.
Inside Gabilondo Report It is proposed to create a reparation fund for victims of sexual abuse in religious settings, financed by the Church and under the control of the State, a measure which has the support of almost the entire House ( with the exception of VOX). García Magán was asked twice about this fund, but he avoided giving a clear answer. The spokesperson puffed out his chest to show a double guarantee of collection (first, through the institutions where the abuses took place – dioceses or congregations – and, in case of failure, through the Episcopal Conference or the Spanish Conference of Religious). Also highlight measures taken by other authorities.
“It is obvious that the issue of child abuse is a social problem,” explained Magán, who also stressed that “we must all commit to fighting this scourge.” “The Church has traced a path, perhaps we arrived late, but we have traced a path that others have not started. “We are ready to bring our experience,” he stressed.
Regarding the possibility that the victims could finally be received by the Plenary Assembly, Magán avoided answering, emphasizing that “on the issue of victims we want to be extremely delicate” and “we will never say if we have the receipts. That’s what they say.” Yes, he pointed out that there are victims in the Advisory Reparations Commission, which is inaccurate to say the least: even if a person who was a victim is part of this body , she does not do it in her name, but rather of an association that works with them.
The bishops also began to evaluate the content of the presentation of the next Federal Congress of the PSOE, in which the repeal of the Educational Agreement with the Holy See is advocated, among other points. The EEC spokesperson then regretted that the socialists were “bringing out the scarecrow of denouncing the 1979 agreements”, recalling that “these are international agreements” which cannot be broken “unilaterally”.
The auxiliary bishop of Toledo, on the other hand, was favorable to another of the proposals: the opening of NGOs – to other realities, such as “scientific and medical research”, “the fight against climate change” or “help those who need it most in Spain.”
“It’s very nice. It’s an exercise in democratic taxation to ask citizens if they want a percentage of taxes to be allocated to one reality or another,” Magán underlined. “I think that it This is good, since the Church undergoes this exercise every year. “This is a real survey, not a projection of a survey.”
Finally, the CEE spokesperson approved the “slap on the wrist” of President Argüello to the political class during his opening speech, a speech “to reread and meditate on”, in which the head of the bishops “launches a call to the moral high ground of society. .” “We must reclaim the nobility of political art,” concluded Magán.
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