The Parliament continues with the work of the commission on ecclesiastical pedophilia, which is also analyzed by Congress, although in its case it delegated the investigation to the Ombudsman, Ãngel Gabilondo, who requested a report from the Church on its internal files. Coinciding with the delivery of that report, the Catalan chamber has demanded the statement as a witness in the commission of Cardinal Juan José Omella.
The summons of Omella, archbishop of Barcelona and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, was approved with the votes of ERC, Junts, Comuns and CUP. MPs from PSC-Units voted against, while the other groups did not participate. The formation of Junts, in favor of the appearance, allied with the PSC to prevent the archbishop of Tarragona and the bishops of Vic and Solsona from also testifying.
The Socialists rejected these statements because they understand that they overlap with the testimonies already provided by those responsible for prevention in each diocese. Junts, for his part, used similar arguments and stressed that with Juan José Omella the ecclesiastical hierarchy is already sufficiently represented. The Episcopal Conference has not officially reacted to the request of the Parliament of Catalonia, but…
Sources close to the leadership of the Church show their discomfort at understanding that everything that Cardinal Omella could say is already included in the report delivered to the Ombudsman. This document indicates that the Church has received at least 706 complaints of sexual abuse since 1945. Last year, 186 new complaints affecting minors were registered when the events occurred.
In total, according to the text delivered to the Ombudsman, 179 victims were minors and the other seven were “legally comparable to minors.” This means that they are adolescents or young people with some kind of intellectual disability that impairs their cognitive abilities, which makes them de facto minors. Of these 186 cases, 116 were reported in religious congregations and 70 in diocesan offices.
Supporters of Omella’s appearance reply that Pope Francis himself has asked for collaboration to uncover all cases of pedophilia in the Church. The presence of the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, they add, is justified. “The person in charge has to explain the Church’s point of view on this serious problem and what is being done to prevent it from happening again,” Junts explained.
The Parliamentary commission on sexual abuse within the Church also plans to hear the testimonies of the right hand of the abbot of Montserrat, the prior Bernat Juliol, as well as the Ombudsman himself, Ãngel Gabilondo, and his counterpart in Catalonia, the trustee of Greuges Esther Giménez Salinas. The members of the research group will also request the appearance of relevant experts.
From relevant experts and notable voices representing the victims, such as the writer Alejandro Palomas and Miguel Hurtado, the first complainant of the so-called Montserrat case. Other testimonies collected will be those of Vicki Bernadet, from the foundation that bears her name, and Manuel Barbero, from the Mans Petites association and whose son was also the victim of a religious pedophile.
Alejandro Palomas, Miguel Hurtado, Vicki Bernadet and Manuel Barbero are four of the visible faces of the tolerance 0 platform against child sexual abuse. The four have been very critical of the Ombudsman’s investigation, which lacks “coercive powers to investigate in depth.” His “is a roadmap that has no route or roadmap,” ironically Alejandro Palomas.
In the view of these four people and those they represent, five key questions remain to be answered. How many religious pedophiles (and employees, volunteers and lay personnel of religious institutions) have there been in Spain? How many victims did each abuse? What percentage of the clergy has committed pedophilia? How many minors have been assaulted by various pedophiles? How many victims have suffered sequelae?
