LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The head of a secular committee tasked with investigating the historic sexual abuse of children in Portugal’s Catholic Church said Tuesday that the afterlife has been “widespread” and in some events 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 “severe conditions that last for decades (and) in some places reach 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.
Portuguese bishop says he is transparent on abuse allegations
A senior Portuguese Catholic Church official who has been named in investigations into allegations of covering up sexual abuse through priests said Wednesday his was clear.
The head of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference, Archbishop José Ornelas, denied any irregularity or misconduct in the instances dating back to 2011 and 2014. Ornelas also presides over the famous Portuguese sanctuary of Fatima.
“I’m not worried,” Ornelas said of the investigations. But he admitted about what happened years ago that “these types of cases are dealt with now. “He did not elaborate.
Ornelas, the government recently revealed, is being investigated through Portugal’s attorney general’s office, suspected of covering up for abusive priests in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony. He also faces charges of covering up for a violent priest in northern Portugal several years later.
“There is no cover-up” in those cases, Ornelas told a televised news convention in Fatima, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Lisbon, the capital. Ornelas said he took “appropriate action” at the time.
He said he did want to comment at length on the instances because “it’s time for justice to take its course. “
Ornelas said the victims learned so far through the secular committee tasked with investigating former child sexual abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church constitute “an enormous number. “He suggested that other victims reach out and contact the committee set up by the Portuguese bishops. ‘ Conference.
“It shames everybody,” Ornelas said of the alleged abuse, admitting that the church “is perfect . . . And I don’t think it ever will be. “
The secular committee aims to give voice and dignity to those who suffer and “ensure that anything that deserves not to have happened will never happen again,” he said.