'Tutela Minorum' urges "path of healing" from abusesCarmen PeñaCanon Law is responsible for creating a framework for the prevention of abuses".At the end of October, the Canon Law Section of the Madrid Bar Association, chaired by the lawyers Monica Montero and Irene Briones, commemorated its VI anniversary in a ceremony held in Madrid. day which brought together well-known professionals such as canonists Carmen Peña and Rafael Navarro-Valls.
Also in attendance were ecclesiastical personalities such as the nuncio Mons. blessed the size Jesús Vidal, auxiliary bishop of Madrid, and the vice-secretary for general affairs of the Episcopal Conference, Carlos López Segovia.
The presentation was given by Jesús Rodríguez Torrente from Albacete, judge auditor of the Tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature in Madrid, and head of the Coordination and Advisory Service of the Offices for the Protection of Minors of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), who spoke on 'The Church and Minors'.
Omnes spoke with him about the abuse and these offices, which have implemented training processes that have reached more than 350,000 minors and more than 125,000 adults in two years.
Can you synthesize your thesis on the Bar Association event?
- Since 2019, when the Holy Father called for the Church to respond to the scourge of abuse with clarity and forcefulness, more than 200 offices have been set up to receive complaints and denunciations from Catholic Church victims of abuse in Spain. All dioceses and most religious congregations have set them up and have provided them with personnel and resources. These offices are receiving victims. They have promoted the configuration of protocols, which are all in the web pages of their institutions and published in the web page of their institutions. www.paradarluz.com of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. They are also involved in the development of prevention plans. They have also been involved in the configuration of safe environments and codes of good practice.
The most important thing is that it is a joint work of both CONFER and the Spanish Episcopal Conference, and we are united in everything undertaken. It is a response of the Church in Spain as a whole.
Madrid has hosted the VII meeting of those responsible for and members of the offices for the care and prevention of child abuse in ecclesiastical environments. Is their usefulness proven? In Repara (Madrid) they have assisted 180 people in 2023, 78 direct victims. And in other offices?
- Undoubtedly, it is a meeting of impulse and opening of fields of action in the field of treatment, healing and follow-up of abused minors. The meetings have been providing working tools to address from all areas of the Church the prevention and action in the abuse of minors. This time the theme was abuse in the family: detection and forms of treatment and reparation. But equally important were the topics dealt with in previous meetings: child abuse of minors, pornography in the health of minors, action in schools and public centers, reparation, training of pastoral agents or legal involvement and action.
As for the work of the offices, in the last two years they have attended to some 900 people -not only victims- who have gone to them either to request information or training, to make inquiries or to be attended to. Not all the offices ask for the same thing or need the same thing.
It should also be noted that most of them deal exclusively with cases of child abuse, while other offices deal with all types of abuse, as is the case of Repara Madrid. In addition, the offices have implemented training processes, which have reached more than 350,000 minors and more than 125,000 adults between 2022 and 2023 alone. Therefore, it seems clear that this is a very useful service and most victims are grateful for the listening and willingness to comprehensive healing.
Do some victimizers, i.e. abusers, also attend or go to these offices?
- Perpetrators do not usually go to these centers. The experience and recognition of the facts forces them to follow a very different path from that of the victim, who by the time she or he reports the crime has matured and is able to verbalize. Most perpetrators are somewhere between denial and acceptance. Some of them have undergone restorative justice processes. But they are the fewest.
They have spoken of abuse in the family. In various media, priests and religious, professors of Catholic institutions, etc., are harshly criticized for their lack of exemplarity. But hardly any mention is made of abusers of civilian environmentsIs this correct?
- Yes, that is correct. Unfortunately the greatest number of assaults on minors occur in the family environment. Certainly this does not justify a single one of the abuses in the Church. No priest, religious man or woman should have committed any abuse. Men and women of God cannot go from speaking in the name of God to being perverse in the name of God. But society should not turn its head and remain calm thinking that it is a problem of the Catholic Church, when it is only a small part, and not see the harsh reality that is in our social fabric.
The impression is that, in the public environment, there is beginning to be a general rejection of abuse in society, especially in relation to women. I don't know if there is the same forcefulness in relation to minors, who are even more vulnerable...
- The rejection of all types of abuse is increasingly growing in our world and in society. Awareness of the issue and the fact of its visibility have forced us all to see as in a mirror. I believe that it is necessary to continue to insist on this reality, providing greater clarity and, at the same time, proposing a training plan that reaches the entire social fabric.
On the other hand, the demand for education in subsidized centers in Spain continues to grow, so parents seem to isolate these identified cases of abuse, each of them being very serious.
- It is easy to answer this. Although there have been known abuses in schools, many are from a bygone era, and society and parents have seen the reaction of schools and the strong commitment to prevent and stop abuse. Likewise, they are informed of the safe environment programs. All of these are elements that make them trust, seeing that in the face of a problem, clear and forceful responses are given.
Is the Plan of integral reparation for minors who are victims of sexual abuse in the EEC (PRIVA) and its Advisory Commission moving forward? After the summer the first meeting took place, I think I remember, after being approved before by the Plenary Assembly.
- Indeed, the Commission is now up and running. Many steps have been taken and now the Advisory Committee The internal regulations are being drawn up so that the first applications can be processed as early as December. This will be a unique plan, since it will deal with cases that are time-barred or whose perpetrators are deceased. The moral duty towards the victims makes it necessary to treat them with rigor and objectivity.
