Until 2016, with this newspaper’s investigation of the Marist case, a veil of silence had hidden the sexual abuses occurring within the Catholic Church in Spain. Since then, complaints have been made in a slow and painful process, once the victims were aware that they could raise their voices and be heard, instead of being silenced, ignored or even stigmatized. In this memory exercise, which must also be
justice, restitution and rectification to prevent this scourge from reproducing, are framed from the child protection law of 2021 to the new instructions of the Episcopal Conference last summer that so belatedly apply the zero tolerance policy of the current papacy or the report of the Ombudsman presented last week (and the episcopate’s own, which has not yet arrived). The mere fact that this process has not reached well into the 21st century, and facing resistance and excuses, forces us to point out responsibilities far beyond those corresponding to the criminals, living or dead, judicially unpunished or not, who attacked sexually to minors whom in theory they were supposed to look after. The cover-up of this scandal is a structural and institutional responsibility.
The Ombudsman’s report has especially highlighted, more than the testimonies collected in his investigation (487) or the cases already recognized by the Church (1,385 victims), or the reflections on the causes of what happened and the proposals for amendment and attention to those affected, the result of a telephone and online survey of 8,000 people according to which 11.7% of those surveyed had been victims of some type of abuse and, of these, 34% in the family, the 10.5% in schools or religious institutions, 9.6% in the non-religious educational field, 7.5% in the work environment… The figures that can be extrapolated from this survey cannot replace the documented story of witnesses and the investigation of complaints, which is only now beginning. The Ombudsman wanted to avoid speculating with extrapolations that would lead to calculating, for example, 440,000 victims in the Church environment (or 1.5 million in the family environment, or 300,000 in the workplace). Yes, it is an exercise that indicates that only part of a reality has emergedand that this is linked to the authoritarian exercise of power, in the absence of a social response such as the one that has finally arrived and, what is more evident looking at the past, which developed without obstacles in the absence of democracy, when judges, Police officers, teachers, pastors or bosses were imbued with an unchallenged authority before those who were not considered citizens exercising their rights.
But these practices, and the concealment, and their traumatic consequences, have survived until today. Bishops should not be content with pointing out figures that may be imprecise or point to abuses in other areas. In their response to Gabilondo they have avoided locking themselves into a defensive attitude and have admitted that his recommendations are “valuable.” But they have taken too long to assume that they cannot be content with treating the abusers who grew up in their shadow as sinners deserving of forgiveness after confessing their faults and making amends and that The focus should be on caring for the victimsthousands of people, however many they may be, to whom they are indebted.