EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has a data base updated with all known cases. If you know of any case that has not seen the light, you can write to us at: [email protected]. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: [email protected].
─────────
The severity of the report by the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, on pedophilia in the clergy has taken the leadership of the Spanish Church by surprise, according to ecclesiastical sources. A blow of this magnitude was not expected and, above all, it was not expected to include a large-scale survey that would offer statistical estimates of the phenomenon, beyond the specific cases recorded through interviews with victims. As happened in France, where a study by the Church itself estimated 330,000 victims in the religious sphere, the estimated figures in Spain have been overwhelming: 1.13% of the current adult population, a percentage equivalent to about 440,000 people, claim to have suffered abuse. in childhood in ecclesiastical institutions. The Episcopal Conference (CEE) urgently called an extraordinary assembly for this Monday, something totally unusual, and remained silent throughout Friday.
Finally, this Saturday, 24 hours later, a tweet from its president, Cardinal Juan José Omella, revealed the first reaction and marked the line: “The figures extrapolated by some media are lies and are intended to deceive.” Later, he added to thank the work of “so many good priests and religious”: “Thank you for accepting criticism and even defamation in the style of Jesus.”
The results of surveys that have been carried out in other countries, such as France, project similar estimates, although the comparison must be made with caution, since the methodology has not been the same in all cases. For example, the Netherlands commission conducted a survey of 34,267 people over 40 years old on this topic. 14% responded that they had suffered abuse outside the family environment and 1.7% within the Catholic Church. In Germany, the sample was 2,437 people over 14 years of age: 3.1% had suffered some kind of sexual abuse in a religious institution. Although in the Irish case the commission did not provide percentage figures, it did underline that cases of pedophilia in religious environments were “endemic.” In none of these cases did the Church question the validity of the reports.
In addition to surprise, there is division among the bishops on how to now respond to the report. According to the same sources, some even consider it a mistake to have called an extraordinary assembly, because in this way importance is given to a report that they would like to ignore. However, an attack on the work of the Ombudsman is not shared by the sector most determined to openly acknowledge the scandal. This internal fracture is even clearer if we compare the reaction of the bishops with that of the religious orders, where in reality most cases of abuse occur. The response from the Confer—Spanish Confederation of religious, which includes the main Spanish religious orders—came the same Friday and was totally different: “From the Confer we apologize to all the victims who have suffered sexual abuse within the Church. “We feel deeply identified with your pain and we regret if at any time we have not acted correctly.” In a statement, he evaluated the Ombudsman’s listening “positively” and advanced that he will take his proposals into consideration: “We will work with the religious institutes on the various aspects reflected in the report to remedy the damage caused.”
There were other bishoprics along the same lines, such as that of Vitoria, which through the social network “The main thing is to accompany them and work for justice.” “Not a single case of pedophilia or abuse should have never been allowed within the Church,” he stated. “We want to express our gratitude to all the institutions that work to repair the pain of the victims during the last decades.” Other bishops consulted by this newspaper affirm that they have not yet read the Ombudsman’s report and prefer not to make statements, although they emphasize that “everything that serves to improve” the attention to the victims and so that we all propose a better future is “welcome.” ”says one of them, who does not wish to be identified.
On the other hand, in the most conservative sector, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, José Ignacio Munilla, was very critical on social networks: “It is not acceptable that the Spanish Parliament requested the Ombudsman to investigate sexual abuse within of the church; and that, finally, they now convey to us the results of a survey commissioned from a consulting firm… To do that—to commission a survey—it is obvious that the Ombudsman was not needed.”
The Ombudsman’s report alludes precisely in its pages to this attitude of denial of the Church since “quantifying the dimension of the problem is always a necessity if we want to know the relevance and scope of a phenomenon that is social and not just individual.” A need that “also derives from the fact that certain actors have frequently denied (generally without providing data) that abuses within the Catholic Church represent a widespread problem. Certain ecclesiastical spokespersons have stated that the media or some political sectors want to give the impression of the existence of a generalized problem based on mere isolated cases, ignoring that the risk of suffering sexual abuse is higher in families or in other environments. , like sports activities.”
But there is also another vertical fracture in the Church, between the hierarchy and the base, as reflected by the perspective of a priest who works on the ground, accompanying and helping victims of abuse: “I consider the Ombudsman’s report as something truly positive, which hopefully will help the Church to take the pain of its victims seriously and to implement comprehensive reparation mechanisms, adapted to the needs and particularities of each victim,” says priest Luis Alfonso Zamorano. “Several victims have called me crying with emotion, because finally, they have felt that a door of hope has been opened for them, a door that was closed to them many times by the Church.” He points out that the investigation has given voice to 487 victims “who represent many other thousands who never could or will never be able to break the silence, for different reasons. This is undoubtedly something absolutely positive. If the Church closes its eyes to her cry of pain, and turns its back on her cry for justice, we will be, once again, betraying her Teacher and the Gospel.”
One of the authors of the Ombudsman’s study, Gema Varona, permanent researcher at the Basque Institute of Criminology of the University of the Basque Country and professor of Criminal Policy and Victimology at the Faculty of Law of San Sebastián, defends the solvency of the work carried out : “The statistics are representative and are made by a company with a very reliable methodology. I think people have to bother reading everything. Making extrapolations has always been criticized, as has happened in the French report. We can make estimates, but we will never be able to have the still photo. “Both on the part of the victims, who do not want to tell it, and on the part of the aggressors themselves, to hide this whole issue.” She believes that one of the keys is that in this type of crime there is a “high black figure.” “This is what is called hidden victimization. Around 80% or 90% of cases are not reported,” she analyzes. “To explain the very high black figure, we must explain the institutional context of the Catholic Church: its power, the persecution and the questioning of the victims, especially the first ones who reported it. Many that I know have not gone to the Defensor, nor to EL PAÍS, nor do they intend to do so. We are also talking about very old people and people who find themselves in a situation with many psychological and social problems.”
The delivery of Gabilondo’s report, on the other hand, has further highlighted another front of the EEC’s problems, its own audit on pedophilia in the clergy commissioned by the law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo. The bishops, who hoped to have it ready within a year, last March, and set the pace with the first institutional investigation into the issue, have seen how it was delayed until it was surpassed in delivery by the Ombudsman. In fact, this month the EEC had given a 10-day ultimatum to the office to present it, which it has failed to comply with, and at the assembly this Monday they will also address how to proceed from now on.
The tension in recent weeks has been increasing and has affected the Madrid firm itself, which this month left lawyer Alfredo Dagnino, former president of the Catholic Association of Propagandists (ACdP) and the man closest to the conservative sector of the bishops. In fact, Dagnino was the interlocutor de facto between the firm and the Church, who has directed the compilation of the documents provided by dioceses and orders, and then has written an analysis and assessment of that information.
Members of the audit’s working commission, made up of 20 people, affirm that Dagnino headed the sector least critical of the Church. He “was surprised by the results of the investigation,” with the seriousness of the matter and the mismanagement of the Church hierarchs in the face of the scandal. Sources from the team carrying out the audit have advanced that, in this sense, the report will go against the position maintained by the Church by admitting “thousands of victims” and advising that all be compensated.
Dagnino’s departure is related to the leak of a draft of more than 2,300 pages to the bishops, who shortly after imposed their ultimatum on the firm. The opinions of several anonymous prelates that were published in religious media were very different. Some They cited that the document contained “contradictions” and “essential points that give the sensation of being taken with tweezers.” Others, that it was “exemplary, thorough, and exhaustive.” Regarding this, the office has stressed that the documentation that may have been leaked has not been validated by the management of the investigative commission and that the veracity of its content “is the responsibility only of the person who wrote and leaked it.”
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#harshness #Ombudsmans #report #catches #Church #surprise #opens #internal #division #confront #scandal