Contrary to its previous stance, the Catholic Church in Spain wants to financially compensate all victims of sexual abuse in church institutions. A comprehensive reparation plan for victims of sexual abuse has been approved, the Spanish Bishops’ Conference (CEE) said. The conference had previously met for a five-day general assembly in Madrid.
The victims are mainly children and young people. The aim is to compensate all victims of abuse, even in cases where the perpetrator has died or there is no court ruling, it said. The church only needs to have the moral conviction that the crime took place. “This must be examined on a case-by-case basis. And if one comes to this moral conviction, there will be reparation,” explained CEE General Secretary César García Magán. This should happen as soon as possible.
García Magán did not provide any information about possible amounts – nor whether the church was considering selling assets to pay the compensation. In principle, compensation should be paid by the perpetrators who committed the crime, said García Magán, and, if necessary, by the institutions involved. “For example, if the perpetrator is deceased, the institution should pay.”
According to a church report published in June, 728 church members sexually abused at least 927 minors in church institutions between 1945 and 2022. It is not a final number, as the church’s contact points for those affected are continuing their work, the report said. “We feel pain and shame,” García Magán said at the time. They want to put an end to the scourge of abuse.
At the end of October, a study group commissioned by Parliament estimated the number of church abuse victims to be in the hundreds of thousands. It is said that there are probably at least 236,000 people who have been sexually abused as minors in church institutions in the past decades. At that time, the Spanish ombudsman and head of the investigation, Ángel Gabilondo, proposed a state compensation fund for the victims.
Church also compensates for time-barred abuse
The planned compensation should also apply to those victims whose cases have expired under criminal law or can no longer be punished for other reasons.
The fact that the Catholic Church in Spain wants to compensate all victims on its own initiative represents a turning point. Until now, it had only made compensation payments after appropriate court rulings. The church has been under increasing public pressure again since the end of October after an ombudsman commissioned by parliament presented his report on sexual abuse in the church. No specific number of victims was given. However, the parliamentary commissioner presented a specially commissioned survey with around 8,000 adult participants, according to which 0.6 percent of those surveyed said they had suffered abuse from priests or religious.
Spanish media extrapolated this value to the country’s total population and came to more than 200,000 people affected. The Bishops’ Conference considers this number to be exaggerated, but has not yet presented its own research results.