Madrid, (EFE).- The Catholic Church has collected testimonies of sexual abuse of 927 minors committed by 728 priests and other religious since the forties and has verified that the majority of the victims, 82.62 percent, are male.
These are data that the Episcopal Conference (CEE) presented this Thursday at the conference “Protection of minors: we continue walking”, which was attended by around 120 people who are involved in the investigation and prosecution of these abuses within the canonical sphere.
“To give light”
A day in which the director of the Communication Office of the EEC, José Gabriel Vera, has presented the report “To give light”, which in seven volumes includes the actions and protocols against the abuses carried out by the more than 200 diocese of Spain in the three years that they have been in operation.
More than 2,500 pages that can also be consulted on the diocesan websites so that they can serve other areas, such as sports centers or schools, among others, so that any institution that deals with minors can know what to do in these cases.
And a “living” report, because it will gradually incorporate all the information that becomes known: it is not closed, but opens the way.
191 testimonies under study
According to Vera, the offices are studying 191 testimonies from the newspaper’s investigation “in order to complete the appropriate pastoral or judicial process with them,” while no information has been received from the Ombudsman’s reports or from the Cremades office. Calvo Sotelo.
He has highlighted that in the canonical sphere the age of majority is 18 years, while in the civil sphere the age of consent for sexual relations is 16, therefore some of the cases included in the report would not be considered as such in ordinary justice.
927 victims and 728 aggressors
The seventh volume of the report enters the data. Thus, in the offices for the protection of minors and prevention of abuses created three years ago, testimonies have been collected that have indicated more than one victim.
For this reason, the EEC figures at least 927 vulnerable minors subjected to abuse since 1940. Of the total testimonies, 283 were received at the diocesan offices and 445 at those of the congregations. None were received in nine dioceses nor in 69 offices of congregations.
As reflected in the report, prepared between February and March of this year, regarding the sex of the aggressors, more than 99 percent are men and only the testimonies refer to 5 women.
Meanwhile, the victims are men in 82.62 percent of the cases and women in the remaining 17.38.
Of the 728 aggressors -a figure that is extracted from the testimonies-, just over half (378) are clergy. In addition, there are 208 religious men and women not ordained priests and 92 lay people, while in 23 testimonies the complainant could not say the ecclesial condition of the perpetrator.
Not all the complainants knew if their attacker was alive, but from what has been verified it can be deduced that 63.6 percent of them have died.
According to the report “Para dar luz”, the orientation of the abuses is mostly of a male homosexual nature (81.89% of the cases), and the aggression was almost always committed in schools, seminaries and boarding schools.
Abuses of a heterosexual nature reach 17.69% of the testimonies collected.
Eight out of ten cases date back to the last century
The study has ordered the commission of abuse for decades and specifies that more than 80 percent of the cases occurred in the 20th century and 75% before 1990.
Only two cases of those denounced were registered before 1950; of the following decades, the ones that registered the most were those of the 70s, 80s and 90s.
The report also includes a study of the place where the abuses were committed, which can be grouped into four contexts: in the school environment (schools, institutes, classrooms, school playground, locker room, gyms, etc.), with 46, 96 percent of the total; ahead of the parish area (parish, church, rectory, parish centers, etc.), with 15.79%; and seminars, internships or schools (14.57%).
This is followed by abuses in free or leisure time (excursions, camping, pilgrimages) and the rest is distributed among other spaces such as family homes, religious houses or automobiles, among others.
Training to prevent: more than 100,000 children and adolescents trained
In short, according to what the Director of Communication has said, all the testimonies are collected “because all the testimonies are of interest to us”.
For the Church, “there is no prescription because the condition of victim does not prescribe.” “A testimony is always relevant, even if it dates back many decades, even if it refers to someone who has already passed away,” she continued.
He has reminded the victims that “there is a place in the Church where they are needed and want to know them.” “A place that exists because we recognize the damage caused and because we want to help all the victims in their reception, in their accompaniment, in their healing and in their reparation”, he added.
And so that these cases are not repeated, the Church, through these protection offices, is carrying out training work for the detection of abuses. Last year almost 150,000 people were trained, of which more than 100,000 were children and adolescents. This year “continues on that path of growth.”