First major clash between the Government of Pedro Sánchez and the Episcopal Conference, which has been chaired by Luis Argüello since March. The reason for the conflict is the plan that yesterday was approved by the Council of Ministers to address the recommendations of the Ombudsman on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, defended the determination of the Executive to “liquidate the debt”, not only symbolic but also economic, with the victims of sexual abuse in the Church who have not had judicial reparation , because they are cases that have already expired or because it is no longer possible to provide evidence, since many date back to the 1950s or 1960s, when, according to government sources, there is “almost absolute impunity” on the subject.
And despite the fact that Bolaños showed the willingness of the central government to develop this plan with the Church, which recognized a good disposition, the reaction of the bishops did not take long. It arrived in the form of a harsh statement from the Episcopal Conference, which strongly rejected the Executive’s project, to whom it attributed “a judgment condemning the entire Church, carried out without any kind of legal guarantee “. The bishops denounced “a public and discriminatory statement by the State”.
Bolaños presented an extensive plan, coordinated between seven ministries and with the forecast that it will be deployed until the end of the current legislature, in 2027, which has among the axes of action measures for the recognition and reparation of the victims, the attention, prevention, training, awareness, information and investigation of these abuses, in line with the recommendations issued in October 2023 by the commission appointed by the Ombudsman.
The first point of the plan is the organization of a State act of recognition for the victims, with the presence of the victims and their relatives. A “symbolic repair”, admitted Bolaños, who already said that it will not be enough. “It’s not enough”, he alleged. And he defended that “adequate and sufficient material reparation in economic terms” should also be promoted for these victims, “silenced for decades”. Bolaños recalled that the Ombudsman reached “strong” conclusions, since he revealed “a high incidence of sexual abuse in the Church”. The estimate was that 1.13% of the adult population in Spain could have suffered from it, that is, up to 440,000 people, according to calculations that the Church rejects.
“Around half of these abuses could have been committed by members of the Catholic Church”, pointed out the minister. They are “considerable” figures, as he emphasized, to justify the reaction of the Central Government to “liquidate the debt owed by society and democracy to the victims”. The minister pointed out that the Church for decades “did not respond adequately to this problem”. And that even now, after the Ombudsman’s report was made public, the response of the different dioceses is “very disparate”. From those who show full collaboration to those who disagree.
Bolaños held a meeting with Monsignor Argüello on Thursday, with whom he assured that he has found a willingness to collaborate and even to pay the compensations, which do not yet have approximate figures. “It seems to me that the Catholic Church is willing to collaborate, that’s my impression, that’s how they told me,” he said. And he emphasized that the Episcopal Conference is already working on the “comprehensive reparation” of these victims of sexual abuse.
“I am convinced that the Catholic Church will want to liquidate this debt”, confided Bolaños. “No one would understand that the Church did not act like other countries around us”, he remarked, after citing the examples of Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
While waiting for the development of the legal and administrative measures for these financial reparations, Bolaños defended that “the Catholic Church should cover the cost of compensation to the victims of sexual abuse” committed in the Church. But if this is not the case, he warned that “the Executive will always guarantee that the victims can have adequate reparation”. Therefore, with the collaboration of the Church… or without.
The Episcopal Conference admitted that the Church’s action in cases of sexual abuse largely coincides with the lines of action presented by the central government. “The Church is already working on the reception, attention and reparation of the victims, the prevention of abuses, the training of people and the awareness of society”, defended the bishops.
But they rejected the Executive’s plan because it only refers to victims of sexual abuse in the Church, like the Ombudsman’s report. “We cannot consider reparation measures that would exclude nine out of ten victims. The Church cannot accept a plan that discriminates against the majority of victims of sexual abuse”, assured the Episcopal Conference. And he warned that this “critical assessment” was already advanced by Bolaños, “when he only focused on the Catholic Church”.
The announcement of the Central Government’s plan also caused disagreements among victims of sexual abuse. Thus, the spokesperson of the National Association of Stolen Children (ANIR), Juan Cuatrecasas, assessed it “positively” and, in statements to Europa Press, defended that “the Church does the duties it has not done urgently “.
On the other hand, Miguel Hurtado, the first whistleblower in the Montserrat case, considered that the Executive’s plan is “decaffeinated”, with “serious gaps” and that it “benefits the bishops at the expense of the victims and the taxpayer”. “It will be the State that pays the bill for the pederasty of the Church”, he warned. “The most progressive Executive in history aims to rescue the bishops”, he concluded.
