The independent commission responsible for estimating the extent of pedocrime within the Catholic Church rendered its final report Monday, February 13.
by MO12345lemonde with AFP (with AFP)
They were minors, come from all regions and all social categories, and have suffered sexual violence which are often already prescribed: in Portugal, an independent commission considered that the “minimum number” of victims of sexual violence Within the Portuguese Catholic Church since 1950 was 4,815 people.
This commission of six experts, which presented its final report Monday, February 13 in Lisbon, heard more than 500 testimonies during his work of about a year, allowing him to “arrive at a much more important victims network “, According to the coordinator of this expert commission, the child psychiatrist Pedro Strecht.
This, charged at the end of 2021 by the Portuguese Church to form a team to measure the extent of pedocrime within it, said the vast majority of the crimes denounced was already prescribed. “It is now difficult that everything remains the same concerning sexual violence on minors in Portugal and the awareness of their traumatic impact,” he said before the press and several ecclesiastical officials.
a “scourge of the life of the Church “
The reaction of the president of the Portuguese episcopal conference, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima, José Ornelas, is expected on Monday February 13 at the end of the day. In addition, the Portuguese bishops planned to meet in early March to draw the conclusions of the independent report and to “eradicate as much as possible this scourge of the life of the Church”, said in January the secretary of the episcopal conference , Father Manuel Barbosa.
In April 2022, Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon and higher prelate of the Portuguese Church, Manuel Clemente, said he was ready to “recognize the errors of the past” and “ask forgiveness” from the victims.
A massive phenomenon
Faced with thousands of cases of sexual violence committed by priests uncovered in the world and accusations of concealment by members of the clergy, Pope Francis promised in 2019 to fight a “total battle” against pedophilia to the pedophilia breast of the Church. This is also expected in the Portuguese capital for the World Youth Days, which will take place in early August.
In several countries, including Ireland, Germany, Australia or the Netherlands, initiatives have tried to take stock of this phenomenon. In France, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church estimated in a report published in October 2021 the number of adults who suffered sexual violence when they were minors by a priest, a deacon or a religious at 216,000 . This number goes to 330,000 if we include the victims of lay people linked to the Catholic Church (school supervisors, for example).