The scandals of the Church’s pedophilia in the world do not stop and very often it is observed how, despite the desire to clarify and erase the shame desired by Pope Francis, the clergy in some cases continue to “make a wall” with a conspiratorial attitude.
This is the case of the events that took place in Spain where a study conducted by the University of Catalonia, with the University of Barcelona and the University of the Basque Country observed how the Spanish religious authorities have so far avoided investigating the problem.
According to professors expert in criminology on minors, the phenomenon of pedophilia in the Spanish Church will never be fully known until the Catholic institution first of all admits that the sexual abuse of minors within it was something “systematic” and second it will “charge for the damage caused” to the victims.
The heads of the investigation, Josep María Tamarit, Noemí Pereda and Gemma Varona, have asked that the ecclesial authorities, as has happened in other countries, open the archives to reveal the true reality of the abuses committed.
“There are many more cases than the 220 that have already come to light,” said Professor Pereda.
The study was presented during the conference on “Child sexual abuse in religious institutions: restorative responses for victims.” On the occasion, many international experts presented the situation in Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Chile. The database of facts in Spain , prepared by the prestigious El Pais, counts a total of 327 cases and 840 victims.
The work carried out between 2018 and 2021, financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and by European funds, and without any help from the Catholic institution, interviewed 38 victims (all adults and 65% men) of sexual abuse by of priests.
The abuses occurred when the minors had an average age of 11.8 years.
In 34.2% of cases the abuse was repeated “chronically” for a period ranging from three to eight years. Most of the abuses, perpetrated by parish priests and priests, had penetrated.
Those episodes, according to Pereda, left “chronic problems of anxiety and depression, sexual, eating and sleep difficulties”, as well as a “spiritual trauma”. The emotional impact had in fact led the victims to the denial of their faith in the Catholic Church.
The authors of the study also showed that many victims had previously suffered abuse (71.4%) and were going through situations of social exclusion or disability: “The religious were aware that these children are highly vulnerable and unprotected and therefore they were sure of to be able to remain unpunished “.
The victims have kept their experience a secret for many years. 86.8% did not disclose the abuse until age 24.
Very few have informed the authorities such as the police, the court or the Church itself. Of those, 52.9% had a bad experience after taking that step.
A key feature of this type of abuse is the awareness that, for the victim, the perpetrator is a representative of God and acts “in the name of God”. Therefore, 56.2% had an extremely negative impact on their faith.
Pope Francis asked for cleaning but perhaps not the whole ecclesiastical world wanted to understand the message.