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Catholic Church
Spain announced on Friday that it had received 101 reports of alleged sexual violence so far this year through a new compensation mechanism introduced in early 2024.
The system was created after increasing criticism of the Church’s closedness in handling cases of sexual abuse of minors.
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Secretary General of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Francisco Garcia Magan, explained that of the total reports received, 58 cases had been ‘resolved’, while 11 others were approaching resolution.
The rest are still under review.However, he did not specify whether the victims had received compensation or the amount, citing the independence of the case handling commission.
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AFP
, the Spanish Church is also currently negotiating with the government regarding the possibility of joining a state fund to provide compensation for victims.One of the points of discussion was the option for individuals to submit reports through the state ombudsman agency, rather than directly to the Church.
In recent weeks, new allegations have emerged, including reports that the Bishop of Cádiz allegedly abused a child at Getafe in the 1990s.A priest in Getafe was also dismissed this summer due to similar allegations.
An independent report released in 2023 estimates that more than 200 thousand minors have been victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Spain since 1940. Meanwhile, internal Church records only record 1,057 ‘registered cases’.
In contrast to a number of other countries, allegations of clerical sexual abuse in Spain, a historically strongly Catholic but increasingly secular country, have only recently received widespread attention.This condition sparked criticism from survivors who believed that the Church had been closed for too long.
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