The Spanish bishops agree to compensate all victims of ecclesiastical pederasty, even in cases where "the perpetrator has died" or "the crimes have expired". This was admitted yesterday by the secretary of the Episcopal Conference and auxiliary archbishop of Toledo, Francisco García Magán, who nevertheless did not specify more about the amounts of compensation or the creation of the fund.
And he couldn't, he said, because the only thing that has been approved ("unanimously") is "the work process" to draw up this comprehensive plan for reparation to the victims. The green light to compensate for cases already prescribed is an important innovation. The plan, added the Episcopal Conference, will have three axes: attention, prevention and integral reparation, which in turn will have three more areas, "spiritual, social and economic".
Regarding the amounts for the victims, the secretary of the bishops referred to what the judges decide in the cases that may be judged, implying, but without making it clear, that those same amounts could be the scales that are use for the injured who cannot go to justice and when they reach "the moral conviction that they are indeed victims". They will be compensated "by moral obligation".
"I cannot specify more about the economic tables because they are not yet articulated", reiterated the spokesman, who emphasized that "if the moral conviction is reached that there were abuses, reparation will be given", although the guilty has died or the facts are prescribed. And who will pay? "In principle, the perpetrators, and in their case, the dioceses or religious institutions involved". The 123rd plenary assembly takes place on the eve of the visit to Rome of all its members, at the request of the Pope. It is a trip with few precedents, in theory with the backdrop of the report on the Spanish seminars. But it will be difficult for the Ombudsman's report and the audit of the Church itself on abuses not to surface.
The astonishment of the bishops at the extrapolated figures of the Ombudsman's report was one of the themes of the assembly, which began on Monday and ended this Friday. The president of the bishops, Cardinal Joan Josep Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, again asked for forgiveness in the opening session "to all people, especially to the victims of abuse and their families" while reminding them that they are "hardening and revising” all their protocols.
The alleged transparency of the Church has not only been questioned by the victims, who say that the first thing they are asked by the law firms that defend the Church is to sign a confidentiality clause. The same Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, and his Catalan counterpart, Esther Giménez-Salinas, have insisted on the need for greater clarity and unified procedures on the part of the institution.
"Frankly and bluntly, we fully understand and value the harm caused. As at other times, we bluntly express the shame and pain that this betrayal of the Gospel message causes us," said Cardinal Omella on Monday. The secretary of the Episcopal Conference yesterday insisted on this "clear and direct request".
The assembly of bishops has approved more than ten resolutions, including the constitution of a dialogue table with other confessions, the inspection of budget balances and liquidations and the appointment of "new doctors of the universal Church". But the reparation of the victims focused the interest of the event. This repair, Francisco García Magán assured, will be "the sooner the better".
Everything remains subject to the process that is now starting, but the spokesman was definitive: "It will always be necessary to repair it". He said this when asked if the bishops would adhere to the Ombudsman's request for a state compensation fund. The bishops would accept if the fund was "for all victims", not just ecclesiastical ones. If, on the contrary, it is exclusively for ecclesials, they prefer to follow their own path.
