The Ombudsman estimates 440,000 victims of sexual abuse in the Church

2023-10-27 12:44:41

MadridA survey that the Ombudsman includes in his report on pederasty in the Church reveals that 1.13% of the adult population have suffered sexual abuse in the religious sphere when they were minors and 0.6 % directly from priests and religious. If the extrapolation is made, there would be around 440,000 victims in the first case and 230,000 in the second – out of a total of around 39 million adults in the State. Ángel Gabildono delivered this Friday to the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, the report drawn up in the last 15 months at the request of the lower house. Among its recommendations, the “creation of a state fund to pay compensation to the victims and for a special administrative body to establish a recognition and reparation procedure” stands out. In a press conference, Gabilondo considered it “fundamental” and “inevitable” that the Church contributes financially to this fund.

The work coordinated by the Ombudsman does not quantify the number of people who have been victims of child abuse, beyond the percentage offered by the company Gad3 in its survey of 8,013 people. Gabildondo has avoided making estimates. What the commission in charge of the work has done has been interviews with 487 witnesses – 334 of whom in person – and associations, which have made it possible to determine “devastating effects” for the victims. Gabilondo has now urged the legislative and executive power to take measures to guarantee the reparation of the victims and the Church to make available all its archives.

“Some victims have had to face denial, pressure, they were even blamed for the abuses they suffered. The Catholic Church is plural and the advisory commission has detected good and bad practices in it. There have been cautions and desire to minimize the phenomenon, but now it is not possible to do so. Society would not allow it”, said Gabilondo, who explained that the positions of the ecclesiastical world have been “more oriented towards prevention than clarification” . Precisely, on Monday the Spanish Episcopal Conference has convened an assembly to assess the Ombudsman’s report.