The head of a secular committee tasked with investigating the long-standing sexual abuse of children in the Portuguese Catholic Church said Tuesday that in the afterlife it has been “widespread” and in some cases has reached “truly endemic” proportions.
Pedro Strecht, a psychiatrist who heads the Independent Committee for the Study of Child Abuse in Portugal’s Catholic Church, said his panel had compiled a list of 424 alleged victims. it had happened.
The panel, created by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, examines alleged cases of abuse from 1950 to the present day involving minors between the ages of 2 and 17. It is scheduled to publish a report on January 31.
The information received indicates that “a significant number” of priests and members of the Catholic Church have committed sexual abuse since 1950, Strecht told a press convention in Lisbon, adding that “the challenge not only existed, it had also spread. “
He said the further back in time his panel goes, the more it discovers “serious conditions that have lasted for decades (and) in some places have reached truly endemic proportions. “
The sick were boys and girls, although most were boys, he said.
Some suspected attackers have been named through more than one victim, and many attackers have been identified, Strecht said. The alleged abuse includes exposure to modesty, penetration and photographs of abuse.
The statute of limitations expired for most complaints. Apart from that, 17 court cases have been sent to the Portuguese attorney general and another 30 may still be sent, Strecht said.
The panel publishes the names of the victims, the identity of the alleged perpetrators or the places where the abuse allegedly occurred. However, your final report will come with a separate, confidential appendix of all the names of the reported church members. the committee will be sent to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and the police.
Strecht said the panel had nothing about abuse through foreign priests.
The committee interviewed all of Portugal’s bishops. Strecht praised the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference, which he said showed “pioneering courage” in the study.
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