The Spanish Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, filed his report in October concerning clerical paederasty; i.e., sexual abuse of minors amongst members of the clergy.

On 21st of last month he gave details in the Spanish House of Congress on the results of his investigations, as well as his recommendations. He called upon both Congress and the Senate to adopt the necessary measures as his conclusion was that the Catholic Church could have done more to prevent this abuse, whilst adding that, “Although it is true that not everybody in the clergy knew what was happening, it is equally true that many did.”

He went on to say that the am of the institution (Ombudsman’s Office) was not to establish the number of cases, but rather to measure the reach of the problem, how the victims can be treated and how to stop it happening again.

Señor Gabilondo said that his office had received 188 new validated testimonies from victims of sexual abuse within the Church in the last year, which raises the figure to 674.

From the reported data it is concluded that 83.5% of the victims (564) are men and 16.3% (110) are women. By age, the majority of those affected (264) were between 50 and 65 years old at the time of the interview, followed by those between 65 and 75 years old (180).

As for the time in which the events occurred, 31% of the cases occurred in the seventies, 27.4% in the sixties and 20.1% in the eighties.

Sr. Gabilondo acknowledged that some of the latest steps taken by the Catholic Church have been relevant, such as the Priva Plan to compensate victims, and stressed that the ecclesiastical hierarchy has gone from minimising the problem by saying that they were “bad apples” to admitting an “implicit and progressive recognition of the facts.”

He pointed out that clerical paedophilia has gone on for decades thanks to the imposition of the ‘law of silence’ In this sense, he welcomed the fact that the circle of concealment has been broken by the courage of the victims who have dared go public with their cases.

The reaction of the various dioceses to the scandal is far from homogeneous. “All the bishops responded, but with varying degrees of response.”

Spain has been one of the last countries to confront the problem and has been carried along in the slipstream of public opinion.

(News: Spain)

Keywords, Sexual Abuse, Minors, Clergy, Investigation, Ombudsman, House of Congress, paedophilia, Catholic Church