Spain’s Catholic bishops reiterated their apology for the cases of sexual abuse committed by members of the church on Monday, responding to a report by Spain’s Ombudsman that accused the institution of widespread negligence. However, they dismissed media interpretations of the official report’s data as “a lie,” refuting the estimated number of victims, which purportedly reached hundreds of thousands.
Cardinal Juan José Omella, the president of the Bishops Conference, emphasized the church’s commitment to supporting victims and focusing on comprehensive reparations, protection, and prevention of abuse during a press briefing. The bishops insisted that any economic reparation program should include all victims of child sexual abuse, not solely those abused within the church.
The briefing was convened to assess the ombudsman’s report, which highlighted the church’s tendency to downplay or deny the issue, despite taking some measures to address the problem. The report’s survey, based on 8,000 valid responses, indicated that 1.13% of Spanish adults had experienced childhood abuse, with 0.6% identifying the perpetrators as clergy members.
The extrapolation of the survey results by the media, according to Omella, “does not correspond to the truth.” The church disputed the estimated number of victims, arguing that the survey’s figures suggested a staggering 4 million Spaniards, or 11.7% of the adult population, may have suffered abuse as minors in all contexts, a figure they found to be implausible.
Notably, the ombudsman’s investigation marks Spain’s first official probe into the issue of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, a parallel inquiry commissioned by the bishops’ conference, conducted by a Madrid-based law firm, is expected to release its findings later this year. Despite recent efforts to address the problem, the Spanish church had previously been reluctant to investigate or disclose information on sexual abuse cases, prompting criticism from the state prosecutor.
