Why Catholic Church in Spain Faces Major Abuse Investigation?

Europe holds the most prominent human organizations founded to protect, defend and preserve Peoples’ rights around the world, especially women and children.

Unfortunately, under the same roofs, many women and children in particular, were and still subject to violence and sexual abuse.

To put that into perspective, a shocking report issued last October revealed that, between 1950 and 2020, more than 216,000 children and young people were victims of the Catholic clergy in France.

This time, it is Spain’s turn as hundreds of cases of moral scandal of the Spanish Catholic Church are on the Vatican table.

Pope Francis received a copy of El Pais newspaper’s report revealing 251 alleged cases of abuse by members of the Catholic Church, from between 1943 and 2018. The newspaper said that “there were at least 1,237 victims affected,” the Irish Times (IT) reported.

According to El Pais, the investigation will be carried out by the Spanish Episcopal Conference (SEC), a high-ranking body of the country’s bishops headed by Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona.

 

Sex Scandal

After El Pais report about clergy’s sex scandal under the attic of the Spain’s Catholic Churches, the latter decided to open an investigation into alleged sex abuse of hundreds of children by members of the clergy 80 years ago, the Reuters reported on December 19, 2021.

El Pais said that the investigation will examine allegations of sexual abuse against more than 251 people from religious institutions including priests.

The same source also said that its reporter gave a 385-page file to Pope Francis on December 2nd.

A three-year investigation carried out by El Pais newspaper, claimed that at least 1,237 were victims of sexual abuse under the Church roof but the number could turn into thousands.

According to the Reuters report, the oldest case dates back to 1942 and the most recent was in 2018.

The Vatican investigation will be conducted by the Spanish Bishops Conference directed by Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona.

When speaking to the Press, The Vatican’s spokesperson Matteo Bruni stated that the Pope received a file revealing alleged abuses and immediately passed it onto the relevant authorities.

However, many activists called for an independent inquiry into alleged sexual abuse in Spain’s Catholic Church.

 

Vulnerable People

Although cases of sexual abuse have come into sight previously in Spain, the numbers have been much lower than in countries such as Ireland, France or the United States; accordingly, the Spanish church has never conducted a large and serious investigation, the Irish Times reported.

The same source quoted the story of the 81-year-victim, Antonio Carpallo, and how “he was abused by a priest in a boarding school run by the Salesian congregation in Seville.” Mr. Carpallo described how one of the Church staff got into bed with him “and touched him, while asking if he wanted to go to a football game. “I was a child and an orphan, how was I going to tell him I didn’t want to see the game?” he said.

Mr. Carpallo was just a drop in the ocean, there are hundreds of thousands of him around the world who were subject to sexual abuse inside and outside the religious doors.

Back to the report of El Pais, an important number of the cases of sexual abuse was between the 1950s and the 1990s, with around three-quarters of these violations were linked to the religious staff. “The Salesians, Jesuits and Marists are among those most frequently cited.”

A statement by the Spanish Episcopal Conference, representing the country’s bishops, widely welcomed bringing to light cases alike, saying that this might “help end the scourge of sexual abuse committed against children or vulnerable people in the Church or in society,” the Irish Times said.

Despite the statement's support, a spokesperson for the Episcopal Conference stressed that the Spanish Church would not start an inquiry until an approval from the Vatican will be received.

“Jéssica Albiach, of the Catalan wing of the leftist Podemos party, said she expected the revelations to lead to a deep investigation.”

She wrote on her official Twitter account that “in Spain we have had years of delay, which is the fault of an Episcopal Conference that is complicit with child abuse, but soon justice will be done.”

 

Decades of Child Sexual Abuse

In recent years, reports of child sexual abuse behind church doors, have become increasingly commonplace in Europe.

The Independent Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in French Catholic Churches, issued a report revealing 330,000 cases of sexual violence occurred in the country’s churches between 1950 and 2020.

In 2018, an investigation was conducted after the Vatican request, about the possibility of sexual abuse in the German Catholic Church.

The results were positive where more than 3,600 children were sexually assaulted or abused by Catholic priests between 1948 and 2014.

Although priest accusations of sexual abuse against children began in the 1950s, the issue was first given important media attention in the 1980s, in the US and Canada.

In fact, in the 1990s, these allegations started to come to light with stories emerging in Argentina, Australia and many other European countries.

In 1995, the Archbishop of Vienna was fired amid sexual abuse allegations, in Austria.

Taking the example of the US, the Boston Globe newspaper reported that there was widespread abuse and many pedophile priests “were moved around by Church leaders instead of being held accountable.” Tinhis prompted people to courageously expose these violations across the US and around the world.

A Church-commissioned report in 2004 said that “more than 4,000 US Roman Catholic priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years, in cases involving more than 10,000 children, mostly boys.”

In fact, the sexual and psychological abuse and violation ware like a “chronic disease” in Catholic schools and Irish orphanages during the 20th century, a 2009 report indicated.