Efforts to Compensate Victims of Clerical Sexual Abuse in Spain

While in Italy it is still impossible to accurately know the number of victims of sexual abuse by priests and religious figures over seventy years, in other European countries not only have important governmental or parliamentary inquiries been promoted, but in some cases there is public discussion on how to compensate the individuals. This is the case for Spain, for example, whose government is studying a package of measures for compensating cases that have criminally expired. The approval occurred today by the Council of Ministers in Madrid. The government seems intent on proceeding with or without the approval of the bishops. The socialist Minister of Justice, Felix Bolanos, hopes to be able to convince the Spanish Church to contribute to the state compensation fund even though the hypothesis was not at all liked by the bishops who have reserved the right to decide shortly. Naturally, the issue is very delicate and in these years of heated debates there have been harsh criticisms towards the Catholic Church for having been inadequate in responding to the scourge of abuses, often denying the victims or trivializing the systemic problem. Now the great issue of restorative justice is opening up. Abuses, the German Franciscans open the archives: a maxi investigation to reimburse the victims and analyze the phenomenon. Minister Bolanos assumes that there could be up to 440,000 victims who might be entitled to compensation for the monstrous amount of 70 million euros. The figure is based on the report of a parliamentary commission published in October. The Catholic Church, in parallel (and belatedly) conducted its own internal study recording “only” 2,056 minors sexually abused by priests or religious figures in the last 40 years. Abuses in the Church, the Cei report: in 2022 two children were raped by priests. Meanwhile, the socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is also planning a political act to ensure that victims of violence can finally receive public apologies after decades of silence and cover-ups.