The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) and Archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omellaha rejected appearsr in the Commission of Inquiry into Pedophilia in the Catholic Church of the Parliament, for which he was summoned this coming Monday, January 29. And he won’t be the only one. The same decision has been made by the deputy secretary of the Tarragona Episcopal Conference, Enric Termesand the president of Ecclesiastical Court of Barcelona, Santiago Buenoparliamentary sources have informed Europa Press.
The president of the bishops relies on rulings from the TC to justify his refusal and remembers that the Church has already collaborated with the Ombudsman
Omella has informed the Parliament that he rejects the summons through a letter, to which EFE has had access, where he has detailed that it was a “unanimous and express” decision of the bishops of the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference, which brings together those of Catalonia. “The bishops of the Tarragona Episcopal Conference have agreed, unanimously and expressly, that I will not appear at the session of the Investigation Commission for which I have been summoned,” said Omella, in a letter that entered the Parliament’s registry yesterday. , January 25.
The archbishop of Barcelona had been summoned to the Commission of Inquiry into Pedophilia in the Church, which previously included victims of abuse, experts in care and support for victims, members of the judiciary and even journalists specialized in the subject.
In the letter, quote rulings of the Constitutional Court (TC), where he remembers that to the legislative chambers “nor is it their “carry out a legal classification of the facts investigated, nor carry out personal imputations or determinations regarding the authorship of illicit behavior.”
Also, that the “attribution of illicit behavior deserving of punishment or sanction” is reserved for “the judges and criminal courts in the exercise of the jurisdictional function or to the Administration bodies in each case holding the sanctioning power.”
Furthermore, remember that according to the TC the obligation to appear in the chambers “is only applicable with respect to those issues that may be the subject of parliamentary investigation.”
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Omella also highlights in his letter that Congress, in March 2022, already asked the Ombudsman “to create an independent Commission with the task of preparing a report on complaints of sexual abuse in the area of the Catholic Church and the role of public powers”.
The archbishop has justified that the Ombudsman presented the “Report on sexual abuse in the scope of the Catholic Church and the Role of Public Powers” in October 2023. Furthermore, he recalled that the report was prepared “with the collaboration of the dioceses, religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, and the EEC.” And he emphasizes that the document “analyzes the cases that occurred in Catalonia where the Advisory Commission made 4 trips and interviewed 53 people.”