At least 4,815 minors have been victims of sexual violence in the Portuguese Catholic Church since 1950, an independent commission concluded on Monday, which heard more than 500 testimonies last year.
“These testimonies allow us to arrive at a much larger network of victims, calculated at the minimum number of 4815 victims”, declared the coordinator of this commission of experts, child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht.
“The report published today expresses a harsh and tragic reality. However, we believe that change is on the way”, reacted the president of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, José Ornelas.
“We ask forgiveness from all the victims,” he said, referring to “an open wound that hurts us and makes us ashamed”.
The Portuguese bishops will meet on March 3 to draw the conclusions of the independent report and announce “concrete measures” to “prevent the repetition of any type of violence”.
For two hours, the members of the commission of experts presented, in a sometimes raw and detailed way, the lessons drawn from the 512 validated testimonies, but also from their research in the archives of the Church and their interviews with its highest responsible.
“Familiar” stories
“Unfortunately, the magnitude of the numbers and the stories are very familiar to us, because we have already heard them from all over the world,” commented Jesuit Hans Zollner, member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and director of the Institute of Anthropology for the Prevention of Abuse, based in Rome.
But the work of the Portuguese independent commission is also “a sign that the Church is capable of facing this deep wound”, he added after attending the presentation of the report in Lisbon.
Faced with the thousands of cases of sexual violence by priests brought to light around the world and accusations of a cover-up by members of the clergy, Pope Francis promised in 2019 to fight an “all-out battle” against pedophilia within the Church.
Expected in the Portuguese capital for the World Youth Days, which will take place at the beginning of August, the sovereign pontiff could meet victims, recently indicated the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, Américo Aguiar, in charge of the organization of this meeting. world of young Catholics.
At the end of 2021, the hierarchy of the Portuguese Church had appointed a commission of independent experts to take stock of the phenomenon of child crime, as has already been done in countries such as Germany and France.
“The majority of the people we heard consider that there is no possible remedy. But they are waiting for a request for an apology from their aggressor or from the Church as an institution”, explained the coordinator of the commission.
Almost all of the crimes denounced to the independent commission are already time-barred, but twenty-five testimonies have been sent to the public prosecutor, said Pedro Strecht.