The victims of pederasty in the Church win another battle

From April 15, those who have suffered sexual abuse in the past by members of the Catholic Church or in any other religious sphere will be able to opt for reparation overseen by the Ombudsman. Despite the system's imperfections, which do not include some of the victims' demands, yesterday's signing of the protocol should be read as a new success for this victims' movement that, for some years now, has managed to have the damage recognized and responsibilities accepted. The protocol establishes how people who until now could not go to justice because their case had expired or because the abuser had already died will be able to opt for reparation. And, most importantly, the arbiter will not be the same ecclesiastical institution within which the abuses were committed, and which has systematically denied or minimized them until very recently, but rather it will be the state, through the figure of the Ombudsman, that will act as arbiter and will ultimately decide what the restoration should consist of, which will largely be economic.

It was precisely the Ombudsman who in 2023 produced a report on child abuse in the Church in which he calculated that 1.13% of the Spanish adult population had suffered sexual abuse in a religious setting. These are enormous figures, tens of thousands of people who would have suffered abuse to varying degrees. According to the data acknowledged by the Church, however, the people who could be covered by the protocol signed yesterday would be around 2,000, a figure that would rise to almost 3,000 according to estimates from other studies. Along the way of this long negotiation – the initial agreement was signed in January, but the protocol has not yet been defined – some things have been lost. For example, that there were minimum and maximum scales for what should be paid, a demand from victim associations that has stalled the negotiation and which has finally been withdrawn from the final agreement. At yesterday's signing were the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Luis Argüello, the ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, and the president of the Spanish Conference of Religious, Jesús Díaz Sariego. Almost all of them argued that the lack of a scale was, in reality, a protection for the victims, because it did not set a ceiling on compensation. We shall see.

In any case, what will not happen again are ridiculous compensations or the minimization of facts, as had happened until now when victims reported directly to the commission created specifically by the same Episcopal Conference in July 2024, known as PRIVA (Comprehensive Reparation Plan for Victims of Abuse). This agreement establishes that the system must last for one year, although it can be extended if there is not enough time to review all cases, and for each case the process can last between five and seven months approximately. There are no scales, but criteria have been established to assess the severity of the facts. We will know the results when all petitions have been processed, but, in any case, the protocol clarifies past responsibilities and can help to ensure even more control so that things like this do not happen again.