EL PAÍS’s investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church raises the number of recorded cases to over 3,000. It is a scandal in which the full collaboration of the Catholic hierarchy is still necessary, both in clarifying the facts, in assigning responsibilities, and in compensating the victims. The Church’s response so far has been insufficient.
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The new data is included in the sixth report on abuse prepared by this newspaper since 2021, representing the greatest effort undertaken in Spain to clarify the facts. As in previous cases, the document has been delivered to the Vatican, the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), and the Ombudsman. The investigation remains open today and can be consulted in a public database of this newspaper.
After the latest update, the number of accused religious and lay people rises to 1,613, 1.46% of the 110,000 priests and religious who have been in Spain since 1940, according to the Church’s own statistics. The total number of cases reaches 3,084, and this sixth report gathers the testimonies of 58 victims (48 men and 10 women) who accuse 50 priests, religious, and lay people. It is also the first dossier to be sent to Leo XIV. The other five ended up on Pope Francis’s desk. In Rome, the text has also been sent to the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department responsible for inspecting cases of sexual abuse and pedophilia throughout the Catholic world.
For the sake of justice for the victims, a change in attitude from the Spanish Catholic hierarchy would be desirable, as after the publication of the five previous reports, it decided not to respond to the documented accusations. And that’s when it hasn’t openly tried to discredit the journalistic investigation and its professionals. The reports included, in some cases, the cover-up of the accused by bishops and leaders of religious orders.
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During his pontificate, Francis delegated the management of the scandal to the Episcopal Conference, but to date, it has opted for opacity and for minimizing the seriousness of the problem. Robert Prevost’s visit to Spain in early June constitutes an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that things have truly changed.
For the first time, EL PAÍS has prepared a report containing 21 testimonies against 24 accused individuals for crimes committed in eight American countries. More than half of the documented episodes occurred in Colombia, and the rest belong to Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela. Among others, there are cases of Spanish religious figures who, under suspicion, were transferred to Latin America, where they were able to continue perpetrating their crimes. This is the sad realization that in almost the entire Catholic Church in Latin America, everything is still to be done. This data is also already in the Vatican’s possession.
The data provided continues to point in the same direction: the Catholic hierarchy may have taken the step of condemning in its statements the sexual abuses committed by priests and religious. But a proper and in-depth investigation of the facts and the assumption of responsibilities is necessary instead of, as has happened until now, a delaying tactic that only harms the victims.
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