The spokesman for the Episcopal Conference (CEE), Luis Argüello, acknowledged this Friday that diocesan offices have received in the last two years a total of 506 complaints of abuse of minors in the Church, and has assured that the collaboration of this institution in the investigation of the cases “is beyond any doubt”.
At a press conference after the meeting of the Permanent Commission of the EEC, Argüello detailed that thanks to the 202 offices prepared to receive complaints of abuses that took place in the past “has allowed us to learn about the drama of 506 people to whom we want to offer recognition and reparation”.
In these cases -he has detailed- those collected by the media are included, and some are already known and had their journey in the civil and canonical sphere. Furthermore, he has indicated, some of them occurred more than 30 years ago.
The spokesman for the bishops has assured that all the initiatives that allow unmasking and putting an end to the scourge of abuse in the Church always have the support of this institution and the Christian community.
“The collaboration of the Church with these initiatives is beyond any doubt,” he said. “We want the truth to shine“, Argüello has emphasized after insisting that another of the Church’s objectives is “to remove people who are shown to be unworthy.”
He explained that some cases that have reached these offices are already known and had their course in the civil and canonical sphere, others have been recently denounced in these offices or in the media and 103 correspond to deceased victims. But all of them are going to be investigated, “regardless of their prescription or the death” of the victim, he stressed.
Thus, priests, priests, ordained religious, others not yet ordained, “brothers” or lay people who have some work in the Church. To all those who have been denounced, added the spokesman for the EEC.
He has reiterated that the Church is developing a formation process of its members to prevent these abuses from being repeated in the present and in the future.
And also so that “tens of thousands of people who give their lives, and have done so throughout these decades, in educational, missionary or catechetical activityare not subjected to permanent suspicion and it cannot be said that the Church is an insecure place for children, adolescents and young people”, he added.