Reiterating his pain and request for forgiveness for the "damage caused by some members of the Church with sexual abuse", the president of the Spanish bishops, Juan Jose Omella, began the press conference in which they announced the points worked by the Spanish prelates in what has been the fourth extraordinary Plenary Assembly in the history of the Church. Spanish Episcopal Conference and focused almost exclusively on the issue of sexual abuse committed within the church in Spain.
On the one hand, the bishops commented on the Ombudsman's reportThe report, of which they have valued, in their own words, "the testimony collected from the victims, which makes it possible to place the victims at the center".
The bishops also wanted to highlight some of the recommendations proposed in this report, especially with regard to the care and accompaniment of victims and comprehensive reparation. On this point, the bishops have commissioned the Service for the Protection of Minors of the EEC an itinerary of the application of the recommendations of the Ombudsman, in relation to the channels of reparation, prevention and formation to prevent these facts.
A reparation that includes economic reparation. In relation to the possible establishment of a fund to assume the compensation of victims of abuse, the secretary general of the bishops stressed that the Church is in favor of an "integral reparation of all victims in all areas" and that this fund should be participated in by all affected areas.
Both García Magán and Omella have repeatedly stressed that "reparation to the victims is not only economic but much broader", emphasizing especially the value of accompaniment.
No consensus on the number of abuse victims
The number of victims of sexual abuse in the Church in Spain is not particularly clear. In May 2023, the Spanish bishops themselves, in their report To give light spoke of 927 victims who had contacted one of the diocesan offices or religious congregations set up for this purpose. The Ombudsman's report, on the other hand, lists 487 testimonies of victims of abuse within the Catholic Church.
The problem with this report lies in the survey it collects, conducted by GAD 3 and which, in the words of the report, was intended to be a "retrospective study of the prevalence and impact of sexual victimization experiences before the age of 18, in the adult population residing in Spain". This survey was carried out with a sample of 8,013 interviews, of which 4,802 were conducted by telephone and 3,211 online. This survey showed that "child sexual abuse committed in a religious environment is a problem that has affected 1.13 % of adults in Spain. The percentage of adults who were victims of abuse committed by a Catholic priest or religious is lower, 0.6 %, a figure similar to that found in studies carried out in other countries". Some media, extrapolating the data of the survey with the Spanish population, spoke these days of more than 400,000 minors victims of sexual abuse in a religious environment in Spain.
An estimate that "does not correspond to the truth" as pointed out by Msgr. César García Magán, who has repeatedly emphasized the Church's fight against this social scourge. Even so, and asked by the bishops about this "dance of figures", both the Secretary General of the EEC and the President of the Spanish bishops did not want to give a definite figure.
The bishops stressed that the problem of sexual abuse is not quantitative, but qualitative, in the words of Omella "the figures, in the end, do not lead us anywhere and what we must attend to are the people: listen to them, accompany them and repair".
The "Cremades audit
The other major topic of the Extraordinary Plenary Assembly on October 30 was the situation of the audit commissioned by the Episcopal Conference to the Cremades law firm - Sotelo. It should be recalled that when this assignment was made, in February 2022, Omella himself stressed that the investigation would have "all the necessary scope to clarify the cases that occurred in the past and to incorporate the highest levels of responsibility to prevent the repetition of these cases in the future".
The audit, in which more than two dozen professionals from different fields and sensibilities participated, was scheduled to last one year, a time frame that, in Cremades' words, would allow "to have a true picture of what happened".
However, the development of this investigation has turned out to be much more complex than both the EEC and the firm itself expected. The first "delay" led to the idea of presenting this audit at the beginning of the summer of 2023; some rumors placed, once this date had passed, the month of October as the time to know the results of this assignment. This has not been the case and last October 11 the EEC "reminded the Cremades-Calvo Sotelo law firm of its commitment". In view of this circumstance, Javier Cremades was present at the Extraordinary Plenary Assembly to explain the reasons for this delay.
The difference in attendance in person and online and the "fatigue" pointed out by the president of the EEC seems to be the reason why the bishops have postponed until the Plenary next November their decision on this work that, as of today "is still alive" in the words of García Magán.
The spokesman of the EEC wanted to clarify that "the bishops have not received any previous report from Cremades" although "the meetings have been almost monthly and they have been informed of the progress of the work".
It will be in November when it will be known how and in what form the results of the work carried out by Cremades' team for the Spanish Episcopal Conference will be presented.
A social scourge
If the Ombudsman's report, as well as other studies that address the problem of sexual abuse, makes one thing clear, it is the social magnitude of a problem for which the Church, evidently, does not go unpunished.
The Ombudsman's own report indicates that 11.7 % of the persons interviewed (8,013) stated that they had been victims of sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence. Of these attacks, most occurred in the family environment (34.1 %), followed by the public street (17.7 %), non-religious educational environment (9.6 %), non-family social environment (9.5 %), work (7.5 %), internet (7.5 %), and the Internet,5 %), Internet (7.3 %), religious educational environment (5.9 %), religious environment (4.6 %), leisure (4 %), sports (3 %) and health (2.6 %), among others reported in a smaller number of cases. In relation to the total sample (including informants who did not suffer any abuse), 0.6 % of people were victims of sexual abuse in a religious educational setting and 0.5 % in a religious setting.
The data demonstrate the social problem of abuse and the need, therefore, to put the same effort into investigating and determining responsibilities in other areas as has been done by the public authorities with the Church.
For its part, in the face of this reality, "the Church wants to contribute to eradicating sexual abuse in childhood not only in the Church but in society as a whole and places its sad experience at the service of the Church to do so, in a spirit of collaboration," the bishops point out in the note.
