The independent commission that investigates the occurrence of sexual abuse against minors in the Catholic Church in Portugal confirmed that it had found evidence of concealment of cases by the clerical hierarchy.
In the presentation of the balance of the three months of work by the group, created at the request of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference – but with autonomous action -, the coordinator Pedro Strecht said that the investigation of the episodes even makes references to bishops who are still in activity.
One of the mechanisms identified by the commission to cover up cases was the transfer of the place where the accused acted, a method that is repeated in different occurrences in the church in different countries.
“There was a lot of practice of moving the abusive person, as if, previously, the place was seen as the determinant [para a ocorrência do assédio]not the person himself”, said the coordinator.
Since January, the commission has received 290 statements considered valid. Most of the alleged victims, as well as the alleged abusers, were male. The group referred 16 cases that have not yet expired to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“It is possible to say, from the networks of other victims signaled by these 290 people, that the number of children and adolescents in question reaches a much higher number. But we are at the tip of the iceberg. It is always good not to forget that”, he said. Ana Nunes de Almeida, who is a member of the commission.
Among the possible victims are people of different socioeconomic origins, born between 1993 and 2009. There were reports from all regions of the country and also from Portuguese who now live abroad.
The places where the abuses would have taken place are varied, from church facilities to religion classrooms in Catholic schools or scout groups. The group did not disclose a profile of the alleged abusers, but it has already said that most are people directly linked to the church, not just laypeople at the service of the institution. Nunes de Almeida revealed that the commission asked to interview Portugal’s 21 bishops, but so far, only 12 have agreed to speak with the researchers.
Also a member of the commission, former Minister of Justice Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio says he trusts the Catholic Church’s willingness to collaborate with the investigations, since the initiative to scrutinize the situation came from the institution itself. “It would be bizarre if the church, having taken the initiative to make known what negatively marked its history at this point, did not add to this negative side of the practice of acts [abusos] also the negative side of the attempt to hide it.”
In Portugal, the group was created after sexual abuse scandals against children and adolescents in the Catholic Church gained worldwide attention. The Independent Commission for the Study of Child Abuses in the Church in Portugal started operating in January, shortly after a report in France indicated that there were more than 210,000 victims between 1950 and 2020 in that country.
At the end of the work, the commission will deliver a report to the Episcopal Conference, which will decide how to act. In addition to collecting reports, the group also investigates with documents present in the diocesan archives.
