I examine the most recent press releases of the General Council of the Judiciary on sexual abuse of minors. You have to go back to October 2021 to locate a conviction of a Catholic priest.
Any abuse against a minor is a horrendous crime. But should the Spanish Parliament really create a commission for the sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious, when the abuse is committed to an equal or greater extent in the family itself or by various professionals in the field of childhood and youth?
I also examine the digital press on the same subject: conviction of an evangelical pastor for sexual abuse of minors, conviction of the imam of a mosque for abuse of minors aged 12 and 13...
Any abuse against a minor is a dreadful crime. Should the Spanish Parliament really create a commission for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, when abuse also exists in other religious denominations? Isn't this clearly discriminatory?
A parliamentary commission by the Ombudsman legally implies two things. First: they do not have to answer for compliance with procedural guarantees (presumption of innocence, legal means of defense, appeals...) for which the courts and tribunals must always be accountable. Second: they cannot impose penalties or compensation on the guilty, because the role of the Parliament is legislative, never judicial. Should the Spanish Parliament really create a commission for the sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious, when the minimum guarantees of the rule of law are not observed and the victims will not be effectively compensated? Data protection regulations in the European Union could require - and social practices on the subject advise - that the names of the victims and abusers be omitted from the parliamentary investigation.
Any abuse of a minor is an execrable crime. But should Parliament really create an ad hoc commission for the sexual abuse of minors by priests and religious, when in the end we will only be able to put a face to an institution, the Catholic Church, which for years has been fighting against the sexual abuse of minors? Is this not, plain and simple, a lay inquisition? No matter how you look at it, the creation of a parliamentary commission or a mission of the Ombudsman for the abuse of minors by priests and religious is legally unsustainable. It is simply an ideological maneuver. And that is why it is inadmissible.
