Instead of closing ranks against the criticisms launched by the Ombudsman of the attitude of the ecclesiastical hierarchy towards cases of sexual abuse in the Church, the Spanish bishops, gathered in an extraordinary assembly, have considered “valuable” the recommendations included in the report presented by Ángel Gabilondo last Friday. Of course, in a note issued after the meeting – and after reiterating their “pain” and “request for forgiveness from the victims” – the bishops recall that from the same Ombudsman report it appears that the problem “goes beyond the Church.” . In its note, the Spanish Episcopal Conference refutes, as its president, Juan José Omella, already did during the weekend, that a precise number of victims can be extrapolated from “a survey attached to the report.”
88 bishops participated in the meeting, 31 in person and 57 by videoconference, in addition to the leadership of the confederation of religious orders, the Confer. “The bishops present have expressed their pain for the damage caused by some members of the Church with sexual abuse and reiterate their request for forgiveness from the victims. Likewise, they have expressed the desire to work together on the comprehensive reparation of the victims and to deepen on the roads for their protection, their accompaniment and the prevention of abuses,” reads the note.
Extrapolated figures
According to the bishops, data such as the number of 440,000 victims extrapolated from the results of a telephone and online survey of 8,000 people “does not correspond to the truth nor do they represent the group of priests and religious who work loyally and with dedication of their lives,” they have reiterated after Omella’s statements over the weekend. .
The prelates, who invited Gabilondo to attend their assembly although he declined, have valued “the testimony collected from the victims, which allows them to be placed at the center” and have considered that the proposed recommendations are “valuable.” The Ombudsman’s report made twenty recommendations, such as celebrating an act of recognition and symbolic reparation for the victims, creating a state fund with the participation of the Church for the payment of compensation and that a special administrative body – created for the occasion – be which establishes a recognition and reparation procedure that also includes judicially prescribed cases. The Ombudsman also demanded that the Church provide the necessary means to help, offering treatment to the victims or their families when they require it, and that the dioceses open the information contained in their files to researchers.
The assembly has stated that it “joins the request of the Ombudsman who urges the State to implement the recommendations that the report makes to its different institutions.” Thus, the bishops reaffirm that “the Catholic Church in Spain has been working for years to put an end to this scourge and will continue to do so along the same lines, incorporating these recommendations into its daily efforts.” They also assure that, “to a large extent, they are convergent with other proposals worked on in the EEC for some time now.”
“Problem that goes beyond the Church”
The bishops recall that the same Ombudsman report – which estimated that abuse occurred in 34% of cases in the family environment, 10.5% in the ecclesial environment and 9.5% in non-religious schools – “presents a general vision of the problem that goes beyond the Church: sexual abuse of minors is a social problem to which all public and private institutions have the duty to respond.” He adds, however, that “in any case, a single case of abuse is intolerable.”
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According to the EEC, “focusing exclusively on the reparation of the victims of the Church” is unfair to those affected in other areas, it would “discriminate” against them, turning them into second-class victims, and it means “not addressing the causes of the problem and perpetuating it in time”.
Internal study of the Church
While the Ombudsman has already delivered his report, the audit commissioned by the Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo firm by the Episcopal Conference itself continues to take a long time to come. The firm has asked to extend the delivery period, but the bishops have decided to postpone the decision to accept this delay until their November assembly.