With the collaboration of the Catholic Church... or without it. The Government is determined to "settle the debt", not only symbolic but also economic, with the victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church who have not had judicial reparation, because these are cases that have already prescribed or for other reasons. The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, has thus defended the promotion of “adequate and sufficient material reparation in economic terms” for these victims, “silenced for decades.”
After the meeting that Bolaños held last Thursday with the new president of the Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Luis Argüello, the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday a response plan to the recommendations of the Ombudsman's report on sexual abuse in the area. of the Catholic Church in Spain, in which seven ministries have been involved.
Bolaños has pointed out that the Church, for decades, “did not give an adequate response to this problem,” and even now, after learning of the Ombudsman's report, he has highlighted that the response of the different dioceses has been “very uneven.” from full collaboration to turning a deaf ear.
The first point of the plan, as Bolaños has announced, is the organization of a State and public act, to recognize the victims, which will be attended by the victims, their representatives and family members. A “symbolic reparation”, the minister has warned, who has already stated that it will not be enough, which is why he has also justified the economic reparation.
Pending the development of the legal and administrative measures that formalize these economic reparations, and a body of independent experts is expected to decide in line with what the Ombudsman establishes, Bolaños has highlighted his willingness to address this process of the hand of the Catholic Church, so that “the Catholic Church defrays the cost of compensation to victims of sexual abuse” committed within it. If not, he has warned that “the Government will always guarantee that victims can have adequate reparation.”
But Bolaños has assured that in his meeting with Monsignor Argüello last week he already found a willingness to pay for these compensations. “It seems to me that the Catholic Church is willing to collaborate, that is my impression, that is how they conveyed it to me,” the minister acknowledged. And he has pointed out that the Episcopal Conference is already working on how to proceed with the “comprehensive reparation” of these victims of sexual abuse. “I am convinced that the Catholic Church will want to settle that debt,” he confided.
Bolaños recalled that the Ombudsman's report, issued in October 2023, reached “conclusive” conclusions, revealing “a high incidence of sexual abuse in the Church.” The report's estimate was that up to 440,000 adults could have suffered sexual abuse, 1.13% of the adult population in Spain. “Around half of these abuses could have been committed by religious members of the Catholic Church,” the minister noted. These are “considerable” figures, he highlighted, that have impacted the Government and that drive it to “pay off the debt that our society and our democracy owes to the victims of these abuses.”
