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.

A mass at the Almudena Cathedral this week became the epicenter of a new political controversy. The protagonist was Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and indirectly, the Archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo (Sabiote, Jaén, 1965), who officiated the mass. The funeral ceremony in memory of the victims of the Adamuz train tragedy was held at the request of the president of Madrid. —and amid criticism from the left—. Being surrounded by controversy is nothing new for Cobo. However, in recent years, the outbursts, and in this case directed specifically against him, have come from ultraconservative sectors of the right.

The writer and journalist Leonor Paqué (Vizcaya, 1963) turned her Renault Clio into a mobile refuge for herself, her brother Diego, and their dog Tinta, traveling 20,000 kilometers across Spain. "I wanted to meet other victims of pedophilia. I had a desire to know who they were, what they were like as adults, and what their lives were like," explains Paqué, who was abused by a priest in the early seventies, when she was only eight years old, at the Santa Marina Children's Hospital in Bilbao, where she was hospitalized. With virtually no resources, she and her brother, the flamenco singer-songwriter Diego Paqué, recorded the interviews and have made a documentary that can be seen on Filmin. Sister Leonor. 20,000 km of confession

Six months ago, HBO premiered The heroic minute: I also left Opus Dei, a documentary series directed by Mònica Terribas that exposed the atrocities of this sect through victims who managed to leave it. Now, the platform itself uncovers the abuses and corruption of the leader of the Legionaries of Christ through some of the witnesses who were able to distance themselves from that congregation, which, in some ways, rivaled Opus Dei in attracting followers, especially in Mexico and the United States. Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of GodIn his book, American journalist Jason Berry, a pioneer in exposing scandals within the Catholic Church, defines the protagonist as "one of the Church's greatest criminals of the 20th century and, at the same time, one of its greatest fundraisers." He refers to the large number of minors he abused and how he created the religious structures and dynamics for many others to perpetuate this practice. Maciel earned an annual income of more than $600 million, double the Vatican's budget at the time. He expanded his reach to more than twenty countries through educational projects and diversified his profits in tax havens. Pope John Paul II made Maciel untouchable within the Church. The pontiff's protection guaranteed his period of splendor and impunity, despite internal investigations that identified him as a corrupt abuser and drug addict.

Eleven years after local historian Catherine Corless revealed that 796 infants and children died between 1925 and 1961 at the Tuam Mother and Baby Institution in Galway, Ireland, the forensic excavation of the site formally began this Monday. The process, expected to last two years, aims to locate, exhume, analyze, and—if possible—identify the human remains buried at the site, as well as to dignify them with a new burial and a permanent memorial.

The pressure on Sánchez to end his term continues. The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, has joined the right and has been calling for early elections for days so that they can "speak to the citizens" in the face of the alleged corruption cases affecting the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). This position was echoed this morning by the religious institution's secretary general, Francisco César García Magán, who asserted that elections would be "a way out of the institutional deadlock." The Archbishopric of Tarragona and the Bishopric of Lleida distance themselves from this statement, and the Spanish government has already responded to the message, accusing the Church of "departing from political neutrality" in a letter signed by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and addressed to the president of the Episcopal Conference.

1. Interpret. Since the death of Pope Francis, the Vatican has been permanently on the front pages of the media, with a constant display of opinion pieces and such a notable absence of critical insight that it seems to have completely normalized what, in the light of modern critical rationality, should be the dark areas of the Catholic Church. Male supremacy, that is, the exclusion of women from both royal and sacramental power. Aristocratic logic: the cardinals, a tiny number of people, handpicked by previous popes, assuming the representation of hundreds of millions of citizens to elect their leader, with Catholics having no say. And consequently, secrecy, a prelude to impunity, as a principle and value that marks the ritual of the conclave: the cardinals' enclosure in the Sistine Chapel, with the smoke from the chimney as the only instrument of communication with the outside world, as if it were a guarantee of feeling God at the time of making the decision.

With the conclave, everyone has talked about the countercultural aura of secrecy in a society tired of transparency and the fascination with liturgy in a world without rituals. This is all very well, but I would say it's being discussed in a rather poor way, assuming a logic of caprice according to which we desire what we don't have simply so we can romanticize the past. But what if behind all this calling us the Catholic Church there were answers to important questions, whether we are religious or not?

The white smoke that ends up spreading over the Piazza Sant Pere in the Vatican is the result of a meticulous process that culminates with the"Habemus papam". A smoke that, after the death of Pope Francis, will give way to the announcement of the next pontiff once the conclave has found a candidate. This is a procedure with an eight-century tradition after processes that in some cases were chaotic. When did it emerge and why? Is it true that they were left to their own devices until a pope was elected? How have conclaves evolved?

On Tuesday, one of the planes connecting Madrid and Rome was full of priests. Also traveling incognito, in civilian clothes, was a Spanish cardinal, trying to avoid detection. He was going to Italy to bid farewell to Pope Francis, but also to participate in the election of the future leader of the Catholic Church. Rome is abuzz these days. Three-way talks, the occasional clandestine meeting, and whispers in the shadows of the cardinals who will elect the new pontiff. As editor Ignasi Moreta explains, Cardinal Narcís Jubany participated in the two conclaves held by Pope John Paul I and John Paul II in 1978. During those days, some cardinals even had lunch three times in one day. And it is now, in the days leading up to the funeral, that alliances are beginning to form. Sotto voce. Although the election is in the hands of the 135 cardinals under the age of 80, the rest of the members of the College of Cardinals, who are the most experienced, also participate in these days of meetings and agreements. "They have lived through many things, they are influencers, are the ones who will say don't do this or look here," says journalist and professor specializing in religion Míriam Diez.

"Human history is nothing but a long catalogue of calamities"

Candide (Voltaire)

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The Catholic Church will order an "independent audit" to analyse complaints about sexual abuse, the Spanish Episcopal Conference has announced. Law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo has been commissioned to carry out the audit, whose aim is to open an "independent channel" to receive complaints and review legal procedures "aimed at punishing criminal practices". In addition, according to the Episcopal Conference's statement , collaboration is offered to the authorities to help clarify the claims and to establish a prevention system "that satisfies social demands in this respect".

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"Getting vaccinated is an act of love", Pope Francis recently said in a message to Latin America, in which he invited people to get vaccinated against coronavirus in the "hope" of being able to "end the pandemic". It was not the first time the pontiff had called for a vaccine to fight covid-19, but even he has failed to convince many members of the Catholic Church. It is a very noisy minority, encouraged by the far right against the health passport and the compulsory nature of the vaccine, which from the pulpit of a parish or from the anonymity of social networks launch slogans against immunisation and contribute to spreading dangerous hoaxes.

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His eleven years as bishop in Solsona guaranteed Xavier Novell a close relationship with the social and business fabric of the Ponent region and with the local administrations in matters of heritage. Perhaps these ties with the territory are what explain why Novell, an agricultural technical engineer by training, has knocked on several doors in Pla d'Urgell to reorient his professional future when the surprise at his sudden resignation from the bishopric is still far from dying down. He has been in contact with the Cooperativa d'Ivars and other social organisations in the area. Although initially a close source indicated that it was Grup Alba, the organisation denied it in a tweet this morning, adding, however, that it would not be strange if it had done so because they have "a job placement service open to everyone".

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Four Catholic churches were burned last week in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The police are convinced that the fires were arson and, although the investigation is still open, it is assumed that the fires are related to the recent discovery of hundreds of bodies and unidentified graves that correspond to students of the former schools for indigenous children, run by religious communities (mostly Catholic) and in which the abuse of children was widespread.

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