MADRID, 1 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The offices for the protection of minors and prevention of abuses of the Catholic Church have received, in the last three years – since they were launched – a total of 728 testimonies of sexual abuse committed against minors or vulnerable people in the scope of the Catholic Church from the 40s of the last century until the end of 2022.
This is clear from the report ‘To give light’, prepared by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) and presented this Thursday at a conference in Madrid. This is the first document presented by the Church in Spain on pedophilia, which includes all the information received in the EEC.
The report is made up of seven volumes divided into: a documentary part with all the abuse prevention protocols prepared by national ecclesial institutions, religious congregations and dioceses in the last three years; a compilation of all current legislation on prevention and action; a third part in which the cases known through the child protection offices are reported, and a fourth with the training work.
Based on the data, of the total of 728 cases recorded, the report indicates that 283 were received in the diocesan offices and 445 in the offices of the congregations. In total, 927 victims have presented testimony in these offices.
In relation to the date on which the abuses were committed, ordered by decades, the document reveals that 80% of the cases occurred before 1990. Specifically, two cases prior to 1950 are recorded; 40 between 1950 and 1960; 137 between 1960 and 1970; 172 between 1970 and 1980; 127 between 1980 and 1990; 45 between 1990 and 2000; 20 between 2000 and 2010; 60 between 2010 and 2020, and 34 cases occurred from 2020.
In relation to sex, more than 99% of the aggressors are male –compared to five accused women– and, looking at the victims, they are also mostly men (82.6%).
Regarding belonging to the Church, more than half of the defendants, a total of 378, are priests (52% of the total). In addition, there are 208 men or women religious, 92 laymen and 23 cases in which the denouncer did not know the ecclesiastical condition of the aggressor. 63.6% of the defendants are deceased.
According to the report, the orientation of the abuses is mostly of a male homosexual nature, reaching 81.89% of the cases compared to 17.69% of cases in which the abuses were of a heterosexual nature.
Regarding the context in which they occurred, 46.9% of the abuses occurred in the school environment (schools, institutes, classrooms, school playground, locker room, gyms); 15.79% in the parish sphere (parish, church, rectory, parish centers) and 14.57% in seminaries, boarding schools or choirs.
There are also 7.28% of cases that occurred in the field of free time or leisure (excursions, camping, pilgrimages) and the rest, 15.4%, are distributed in other spaces such as family homes, religious houses or cars.
The report also includes the information provided by El País, specifically, a total of 191 testimonies out of the 503 delivered by the newspaper. From the EEC they specify that they have not been able to collect all the cases sent by the newspaper because they lacked data on the victim or the accused to start the investigation work.
The EEC specifies that this work is prepared from the testimonies that have been collected in the offices, without presupposing or proving innocence or guilt, for which reason it points out that some of the cases presented, which have had judicial proceedings, have been archived or has declared an acquittal. In other cases, the investigation is still open, they add.
In addition to the protocols and ethical codes prepared by the offices, the document indicates that, during 2022, a total of 152,906 people have received training on detection of abuse, most of them, 68%, children and adolescents. 18,239 fathers and mothers have also received this training; 21,195 teachers and 2,724 priests.
The objective of this training is that any person linked to an ecclesial institution, either as a participant in its activity or as a member of that institution, can detect sexual abuse of minors, as explained by the EEC. They also want minors to learn to identify and communicate if they are suffering such abuse.
From the EEC they have assured that the Church is “the main interest” in knowing what has happened and in putting the means so that cases of abuse are not repeated; They warn that “a single case is serious enough” and invite all victims to file a complaint with the Church offices, where, according to what they point out, “reception, accompaniment, healing and reparation” are offered.
